The event, with a theme of “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”, is expected to attract close to 20 million visitors. Salesian missionaries are highlighting projects and initiatives that focus on feeding the body, educating the person and cultivating the dream. The Salesian Sisters’ program ran the first week of September and focused on Salesian projects that support the development of women’s micro-entrepreneurship.

UN Women, the United Nation’s entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women, recently published a report called, “Progress of Women in the World 2015-2016” which noted that globally three quarters of working age men 15 years old and older are in the labor force compared to half of working age women. Among those who are employed, women constitute nearly two thirds of contributing family workers who work in family businesses without any direct pay. Women continue to be denied equal pay for work of equal value and are less likely than men to receive a pension, which translates into large income inequalities throughout their lives. However, the income women could be earning is critical to their family’s survival.

The Salesian Sister’s Female Entrepreneurship program presents an overview of best practices for micro-entrepreneurship projects that result in better economic conditions for women, their families and communities. Micro-entrepreneurship provides women valuable tools to escape from welfare dependence, stimulate production activity and bring out creativity and ingenuity in addition to increasing hope, dignity and employment opportunities.

“Young women and girls face many disadvantages and barriers to accessing education and achieving financial independence despite their huge potential,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions. “It is very important for young women and girls to attend school and gain an education. Women that are empowered though education are more often able to achieve financial independence, marry at an older age and make better and healthier choices that affect not only themselves but their families and communities as well.”

At the expo, the Salesian Sisters highlighted projects from the past 10 years that include a wide range of businesses run by women including the raising of small livestock, growing vegetables and food production, weaving and alternative medicine. The businesses that have been created differ depending on culture and location. Since 2004, The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians have developed more than 400 micro-entrepreneurship projects that have helped more than 30,000 women.

One of the projects highlighted focused on young migrant women living in Cammarata, a community in the Province of Agrigento in the Italian region of Sicily, who were trained in the basics of local agriculture, in particular the cultivation of olives. The course enabled them to implement the skills and knowledge they learned to gain employment in a field that is available in their new home country.

Many of the projects included on the job training in cooperative work and self-financing. For many women, starting a small income-generating activity can ensure the improvement of living conditions for their entire family and the possibility of education for their children, in addition to the empowerment of the woman herself.

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Sources:

ANS – Italy – Casa Don Bosco – Expo 2015: the FMA for female entrepreneurship

Casa Don Bosco Expo 2015

UN Women – Report Progress of Women in the World 2015-2016

The post ITALY: Salesian Sisters Highlight Mico-Entrepreneurship Projects that Help Women Gain Skills and Employment first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Recently, Schneider Electric donated an entire electric management system that will power Casa Don Bosco, a facility that will host Salesian participants and projects from May through October at the 2015 World Expo to be held in Milan, Italy. The pavilion will be an agile and multifunctional space able to host conferences, events, exhibitions and shows. The electric system that will be utilized for Casa Don Bosco is an interactive and intelligent system that allows energy consumption and saving to be monitored in real-time.

The Salesian Family which includes the Don Bosco Network and the International Volunteers for Development, is one of 13 civil society organizations participating in the World Expo Milano. The event, with a theme this year of “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”, is expected to attract close to 20 million visitors. Salesian missionaries will highlight projects and initiatives, many in collaboration with Schneider Electric, that focus on feeding the body, educating the person and cultivating the dream.

“Collaborative partnerships between Salesian missionaries and corporations are essential to help us meet our mission to provide education and social development programs to poor youth around the globe,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Salesian missionaries provide technical and professional training for future electricians in many Salesian schools. The Schneider Electric partnership allows us to have up-to-date training materials and equipment available for our students along with professional training support in our classrooms.”

Through the Schneider Electrical Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Schneider Electric, more than 10,000 students have received electrician training in Salesian programs in India, Latin America and Europe since 2009. In addition to providing education, Salesian training programs help students connect to internships that allow them to apply lessons learned in the classroom to real-life work environments. Successful gradates of the electrician programs are provided assistance with resumes, interviewing and finding and retaining stable livable wage employment.

“Salesian programs educate poor youth who would otherwise have few opportunities for education and employment,” adds Fr. Hyde. “Having access to professionals in the field gives our students an advantage not only in the classroom but in the workforce as well.”

Salesian missionaries are also actively engaged in building hospitals, schools and youth centers as well as other community infrastructure in more than 130 countries around the globe. Schneider Electric has assisted in the implementation of many of these projects by providing both the equipment and professional support.

In addition, a Schneider Electric project focused on managing energy helps Salesian missionaries increase energy efficiency in Salesian houses and program buildings. This allows for a utility cost savings that is reinvested back into Salesian programs.

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Sources:

ANS – RMG – Ten Years of Active Collaboration between Schneider Electric and Salesians

Milan’s World Expo 2015

Schneider Electrical Foundation

The post GLOBAL: Schneider Electric Partnership Has Provided Training to More than 10,000 Students and Supported Infrastructure Projects first appeared on MissionNewswire.