120 women receive training to strengthen or start their businesses, in Tungurahua

Ambato

The Corporation for the Development of Ambato and Tungurahua (Corpoambato) trains 120 women, many of them victims of gender-based violence, to strengthen their enterprises or start a new business.

This program, which has an investment of $30,000, began in the middle of last year with the support of the Government of Canada.

Ruth Bolaños, executive director of Corpoambato, commented that this teaching process has focused on women from Tungurahua, because this province is one of the provinces that registers the most gender violence. At least, says Bolaños, seven out of ten women have suffered some kind of abuse.

I have a case of one of the entrepreneurs who once told me that her husband wanted to throw her out of her house, the one she had bought when she was single

Ruth Bolaños, executive director of Corpoambato.

Bolaños assured that the 120 women are trained with different tools so that they stop being dependent on their partners. He added that the abuse, which many endure in silence, has been dragging on from previous generations and, unfortunately, it is still replicated in our current society.

As part of the training they receive, women know their rights so they can make decisions and feel empowered. “Husbands are beginning to understand that it is not how they were taught at home, that they are the dominant one, with which another type of example is generated in their children,” said Bolaños.

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This awareness has helped them strengthen their self-esteem and start their businesses. Currently 67 of the 120 have already started their businesses. “They are no longer confined to houses, now they have the strength to get up on their own,” said the director of Corpoambato.

This project continues with the accompaniment during the following 24 and 48 months. During this time they will receive orientation in different stages, beginning with the pre-incubation of the venture, which refers to launching an interesting product on the market to market it.

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Then, they follow new training to turn them into entrepreneurs, with the vision that they develop new products and seek new markets to consolidate their brand.

One of the participants in this program is Silvia, 54, who makes homemade garlic paste. This experience has been her, she considers, “very gratifying”, because it has allowed her to set a goal: that her product be marketed throughout the national market. She with that desire she works in that enterprise. (I)