NURTURING OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN
Enhancing Gender Equity
The NOW program is a three-phase program exclusively for women that strengthens household finances, improves business skills and increase household income through agriculture. All three programs are entirely picture-based, so learning is accessible to all, regardless of their level of literacy.
NOW Program Impact
NOW program graduates
increase in women reporting speaking in public
increase in participants who report joint or sole decision making for household purchases
NOW: Strengthening Household Finances
NOW: Strengthening Household Finances empowers participants with financial planning, decision-making, and public speaking skills. Participants are trained on basic financial principles, tools for saving and tracking their resources, and communication skills to achieve personal financial goals. At key points in the program financial decision-making is discussed with husbands and male family members, with the aim of shifting beliefs about gender roles in the home and the community.
NOW: Improving Income Through Business Skills
NOW: Improving Income Through Business Skills was formed based on community request and participant feedback. Building on skills learned in NOW: Strengthening Household Finances, women are trained to successfully run a profitable business. Participants actively problem solve and learn the tools necessary to effectively increase profit and how to confidently communicate their business ideas. Participants use picture-based workbooks, which provide the framework for the participants to record and track income and expenses, assess risk, and calculate profit.
NOW: AgriBusiness
Requested and developed by the NOW graduates, NOW: AgriBusiness is the newest and third phase of the NOW program. Eager to take their training to the next level, NOW: AgriBusiness applies the lessons learned from NOW: Household Finances and NOW: Business Skills to agriculture and farming. In this phase of the NOW program, women are trained in agricultural concepts and techniques to reduce food insecurity and increase income. Participants are provided with rice seeds at the beginning of the program and use their prior and new knowledge of agriculture to improve wellbeing for themselves and their community.