Amazing Visit with our Semillas Grantee
On May 1, 2014, the 11 Empowered members (along with the gracious help of our inspiring Semillas lead, Laura Garcia) visited the recipients of our fundraising efforts, the indigenous Tseltal women who are setting up a women's cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico, called Sbejel Ansetik Sociedad Cooperativa. The project goal is to strengthen the economic autonomy of these resilient women by forming a cooperative that produces and sells natural products ranging from coffee to marmalade to artisan work.
Our donation helped them establish the cooperative and provide initial working capital to get it off the ground. In addition to the economic lift this cooperative provides, there are profound indirect benefits including giving the women an opportunity to get out their isolated homes and bond with the other women. At the bi-monthly meetings, they are also trained on sexual and reproductive health aimed at decreasing maternal and infant mortality and increasing family planning.
We had the opportunity to meet and spend time with the project lead, Anita Gómez, who is from the region and is spearheading these grass roots efforts. We watched as she ran a cooperative meeting and graciously served us lunch in her home. She was a remarkable woman whose leadership and presence was felt despite the language barrier. You can feel the passion and determination to overcome the startlingly discrimination against women and slowly, patiently change the mindset of the men in the region. Grassroots efforts take time but we could feel the beginning of an important shift. We were truly honored to meet the women who will help make it a reality and lift their families up out of poverty and towards a better life.
Our donation helped them establish the cooperative and provide initial working capital to get it off the ground. In addition to the economic lift this cooperative provides, there are profound indirect benefits including giving the women an opportunity to get out their isolated homes and bond with the other women. At the bi-monthly meetings, they are also trained on sexual and reproductive health aimed at decreasing maternal and infant mortality and increasing family planning.
We had the opportunity to meet and spend time with the project lead, Anita Gómez, who is from the region and is spearheading these grass roots efforts. We watched as she ran a cooperative meeting and graciously served us lunch in her home. She was a remarkable woman whose leadership and presence was felt despite the language barrier. You can feel the passion and determination to overcome the startlingly discrimination against women and slowly, patiently change the mindset of the men in the region. Grassroots efforts take time but we could feel the beginning of an important shift. We were truly honored to meet the women who will help make it a reality and lift their families up out of poverty and towards a better life.
Running to Raise Money for Semillas
On October 12, 2013, the 11 Empowered members participated in 10K races in San Francisco and New York. We had a great time, and most importantly, with the help of our generous donors, we surpassed our goal of $15,000, raising a total of $16,936 for Semillas!
Huge thank you to all of our donors. We couldn't have done it without you!
On October 12, 2013, the 11 Empowered members participated in 10K races in San Francisco and New York. We had a great time, and most importantly, with the help of our generous donors, we surpassed our goal of $15,000, raising a total of $16,936 for Semillas!
Huge thank you to all of our donors. We couldn't have done it without you!
Training to help Entrepreneurs
An exciting day for 11Empowered! On May 16, 2010, Katie, an employee from Women's Initiative, was gracious enough to come to Stanford's campus for our Volunteer Initiation. She patiently answered each of our million questions and gave us a great first impression of the organization! They are such a tremendous fit with our mission and it became obvious that working with them is going to be a lot of fun!
We were very impressed by the rigorous training program they have in place to help female entrepreneurs get their businesses off the grounds. They are in the perfect phase too - not so small where our desire to volunteer becomes overwhelming but not too big where we can't add some value. In fact, everyone in the room was getting excited thinking of possible places we can help.
In April 2011, Karla "Moneybags" Burkitbayeva presented Katie with our initial donations, and we are anxiously awaiting our first project!
We were very impressed by the rigorous training program they have in place to help female entrepreneurs get their businesses off the grounds. They are in the perfect phase too - not so small where our desire to volunteer becomes overwhelming but not too big where we can't add some value. In fact, everyone in the room was getting excited thinking of possible places we can help.
In April 2011, Karla "Moneybags" Burkitbayeva presented Katie with our initial donations, and we are anxiously awaiting our first project!