This project empowers families and especially women in rural Bolivia to start small businesses by planting tara trees. The families are educated on subjects such as health, nutrition and entrepreneurship. By enabling them to generate a stable income for their families by growing and harvesting the tara plants, womens' role in rural Bolivia is strengthened.

Challenge

Rural Bolivia is characterized by strong patriarchal structures: Women only have a say in 2 % of the socially relevant decisions [HSI, 2014] and illiteracy is widely spread among females. Income is usually not perceived to be mutually generated in families so that in most cases, only men get to decide about property. In addition to this general discrimination, 70 % of women fall victim to physical, sexual or psychological assault making rural Bolivia the most badly affected in all Latin America.

Long-Term Impact

Building family businesses is a way to gradually weaken the patriarchal structures. Men and women are equally involved in the tara production and are schooled in entrepreneurship only together. With the opportunity to generate income, women in rural Bolivia will slowly be able to acquire an increasing say in socially relevant decisions.

References

1. https://aktion-sodis.org
2. https://aktion-sodis.org/we-are-action-sodis/
3. https://www.facebook.com/AktionSodis
4. https://www.instagram.com/aktionsodis/
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aQ0uSixzio

Additional Documentation

https://www.globalgiving.org//pfil/41904/projdoc.pdf

Project Gallery