WORTH – the Women’s Empowerment Programme

Women play a key role in driving change and economic progress in developing countries.

When they can acquire the skills to build and run their own businesses or local social projects - for example savings and credit co-operatives – miracles can happen.

That’s why, working with the Genisis Institute of Social Business and Impact Strategies, lavie & belle has chosen to support the work of WORTH via our CHANGE 33 initiative.

WORTH – the Women’s Empowerment Programme - is an initiative that specialises in providing education for women in developing countries.

The programme started with a pilot project in Nepal, delivering specialist education to 125,000 women. After three years, around 86,000 of them had started their own small businesses. They also set up 1,000 village banks and 50,000 social projects in their communities. Even more impressive is that the income of these women increased by 800 percent on average.

WORTH is now replicating this model of success. Already it has schemes underway in seven African countries and, in partnership with Genisis, it is also expanding into very poor and rural areas of India.

lavie & belle is giving one third of its profit to the Genisis Institute to be invested into existing and new WORTH projects.