Education and the right to work are two of the most powerful tools in overcoming poverty.
Women should have equal access to the resources needed to earn an income such as education, land and credit. We help women access the skills, knowledge and resources they need to succeed and lead their families out of poverty.
CARE works to increase access to quality education for all children, particularly girls living in fragile and conflict-affected settings and help women fight for their rights to get a job, be paid equally and treated fairly.
Fast Facts
131 million girls around the world are missing out on school.
66% of the world’s young people don’t meet the minimum skills needed to meaningfully engage in an international economy.
Girls are 50% more likely to lose the opportunity for education than boys.
Impact stories
Dircia in Timor-Leste
CARE in Timor-Leste is renowned for its education sector support, particularly in improving literacy, numeracy and quality of teaching. We have partnered closely with Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Education since 2002.
Since 2001, CARE has produced and distributed the Lafaek Magazines, which features educational content for schoolchildren, teachers and parents. These magazines, distributed three times per year to government-registered pre and primary schools and surrounding communities, provide vital messages for families and communities around health, hygiene, nutrition and agriculture.
Lafaek Ki’ik and Lafaek Prima reach all schoolchildren from preschool to grades 1-6, teaching basic literacy and numeracy skills, including positive messages about equal opportunities for boys and girls. Lafaek Ba Manorin targets teachers with innovative teaching methodologies and educational tools and Lafaek ba Komunidade provides valuable information on healthcare and agricultural practices to households across the country.
Dircia is a passionate climate change activist. At age 12, Dircia came across a story about a child’s adventure in the forest from CARE’s Lafaek magazine. The story sparked her passion for climate justice and conservation and would later inspire her to pursue a career as an activist.
Now as a young adult, and having acquired abundance of experience and leadership skills, Dircia reconnects with CARE’s Lafaek project to inspire other young people across Timor Leste to follow her lead in taking positive action for climate change and conservation.
Jesha in the Philippines
Jesha has come a long way over the past 10 years. Before then, she mainly spent her time taking care of her family in Cebu, Philippines while her husband worked overseas to support them. An opportunity arose to start a recycling business, but she didn’t have the financial means to do it.
“I called my husband to discuss the business opportunity. I was thinking, maybe I can’t do it, but he encouraged me to continue,” Jesha explains.
Unfortunately, for many women like Jesha, the opportunity to start up a business or make a living is out of the realm of possibilities.
Around the world, women are often excluded from accessing the means to earn a living or start a business. Over 1.4 billion adults do not have access to banking, and in low-income and middle-income countries, there is a $1.7 trillion financing gap for female entrepreneurs.
This limits their ability to earn a reasonable income and to improve their lives.
Fortunately, there are systems to help break down these barriers to bring access to these excluded households and communities. Financial inclusion has been shown time and time again to reduce poverty in poorer communities, and to improve the lives of low-income women in particular. Around the world, microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide more than 140 million low-income clients with credit and savings services, a majority of whom are women.
Through CARE’s programming, Australians are now able to support individuals who need a helping hand to make a living. The program supports low-income individuals, families and communities in the Asia-Pacific region that do not have access to traditional banking and financial services to help overcome these barriers.
CARE aims to connect hard-working people in this region with Australians driven to support them through a small loan to get their idea off the ground.
The process is simple: you choose who to support, your loan helps give them a hand up to earn a living, and, as they grow, they repay your loan back to you. You can then re-lend what you have been repaid to support someone else, continuing the cycle of support within these communities. Most importantly, 100% of your loan goes towards supporting borrowers; meaning every last penny of your loan goes towards making their dreams a reality.
Through this initiative, over $600K in loans have been lent to individuals looking for a helping hand to support or start their small business. We have supported borrowers in the AsiaPacific region, 4 out of 5 of which have been women. Speaking with the borrowers to hear their stories, we uncover time and time again the waves of impact expanding out beyond their work and income. This includes hiring local staff, sending their children to school, and sparking new initiatives within their community.
Jesha’s story is one of triumph and inspiration. After pawning some jewellery and receiving a loan from a local financial service provider, she took on a recycling business buying recyclable scraps such as copper, bronze, aluminium and batteries.
Rising above the odds, her hard work has paid off and she has seen enormous success in her community. This success hasn’t ended with an improved way of life for herself and her family; she also now employs five local workers, which shows the cascading effect that a loan can make in supporting a community. She has also expanded to operate a business selling soft drinks to other areas of Cebu, which employs an additional 10 workers in her community.
“I am proud that I went from being a housewife to a successful business woman. I am proud of my work,” Jesha says. “[Through a loan,] my livelihood has improved. I feel proud because of my business buying scraps and helping in the community through my employees.”
For Jesha and her community, it seems that the opportunity for growth and positive returns has no limit all thanks to the financial support of a few who believed in her.
