Women Empowerment
In a country with high poverty rates and where securing gainful employment is an ever-present challenge, women in low-income neighborhoods in Jalisco, Mexico face daily struggles in leading healthy, full lives.
It is widely recognized that women are the foundation of any community and if they are empowered, their families, and eventually an entire community will also be empowered. PRAC’s skills training program for underprivileged womenseeks to break the vicious cycle of poverty by empowering them with vocational skills and basic tools needed to gain financial independence and improve the quality of life for their families.
The program currently offers a two-year tailoring course, held at PRAC’s large auditorium. Participants receive weekly hands-on training in basic and advanced tailoring skills from professional seamstresses, with the goal being to not only create and repair clothing for their own families' use, but to also market their products and services locally, a tailoring micro-enterprise. During the training sessions, the students work on new sewing machines, which are donated to PRAC. After completing the course, each woman will be able to keep this new sewing machine as a tool for self-employment The women benefitting from the program are all unemployed and for the most part have had minimal education. Only a few have completed primary-level education and many read with some difficulty. PRAC aims to not only improve their economic situations through vocational training, but in many cases also help them regain their self-worth and personal dignity.