Momentum for Women's Empowerment

When a woman is given the tools to provide for her family, a whole household - and often a whole community begins to hope again. That is what we have seen through Mosaic's women's empowerment programme, and we're delighted to share that the momentum is growing.

Across the communities we serve, it is so often the women who hold families together. Many are from Christian and other minority communities who have lived through displacement, conflict and loss. They carry the care of children and elderly relatives, yet they are usually the first to lose an income and the last to be offered training, credit or a network of support.

We know that when a woman earns, she invests in her children's schooling, in her family's health and in her neighbours. Helping women to build sustainable livelihoods is one of the surest ways we can help families not only survive, but stay, rebuild and flourish in the lands their communities have called home for centuries. This is why women's empowerment sits at the heart of Mosaic's work.

A celebration in Westminster

Earlier this year we formally launched the programme in Westminster, at an event hosted by Baroness Fiona Hodgeson and run in partnership with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Women, Peace and Security. Our Patron, the Rt. Hon Alistair Burt, twice the UK's Minister for the Middle East, gave the main address. CNN correspondent Jomana Karadsheh then moved the room with the personal stories of women she has met through her reporting across the region. It was a joy to see so many people stand alongside these women.

From a small pilot to a three-year programme

This did not begin with a grand plan, but with a small step of faith. In 2022, working with our local partner, Friends of Youth Forum, we ran a pilot across the Nineveh Plains region of northern Iraq, communities still rebuilding after being uprooted by ISIS in 2014. We supported ten women to set-up or grow their own small business. Four years on and those businesses are still going strong. What we've learnt was simple: given practical skills encouragement and one another, these women thrive.

Over the next three years, we'll train up sixty women and support them through a network that will provide mentoring and support long after the programme ends.