How Libya's Savvy Women Entrepreneurs Are Building Businesses Amid Conflict
Between now and September, Canada's Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) hopes to have 300 women complete modules in the beta version of an online course, which includes lessons on accounting, marketing, and other business topics.
If MEDA is able to secure additional funding, Adam Bramm, who oversees MEDA's operations in North Africa and the Middle East, plans to expand and scale the program in Libya and beyond.
"There’s definitely a need for this," says Bramm. "Due to some of the violence and conflict that has been going on, a lot of the men have left. The women are starting to set up and fill in the gaps."
The NGO's partner D2L is best known for its online platform Brightspace, an adaptive learning solution and curriculum repository.
"Being able to move sessions online and provide a high-quality experience I hope will help thousands of women," says D2L CEO John Baker. His instructional designers and developers have been working with MEDA to adapt lessons for mobile and to think creatively about ways for participants to build meaningful relationships. "The community was really a big part of what was happening in Libya before," he adds.
Intissar Rajabany, MEDA's project manager for Libya, says:
"For many women in Libya it’s a late start; they don’t have the same opportunities that we do in other countries for getting skills up to speed.
"They want to do something and better their lives, and they don’t want to be dependent on a man or a government salary that may not come through."
(Source: Fast Company)
