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DIMAPUR — The Entrepreneurs Associates (tEA) under its ‘Uplifting women street vendors’ initiative, organised a Specialised Accelerated Intensive Learning (SAIL)-cum-skills training programme for women street vendors at Kami village in Phek district, on March 1.
A total of 68 women attended the programme which was led by Mhechieteu Tero, community mobiliser and skills trainer for tEA, stated a press release from tEA. “tEA's commitment to uplift women street vendors has spread across different regions of North East India. This SAIL-cum-skills training programme serves as a powerful tool, empowering women street vendors by addressing their financial challenges head-on,” the release stated.
A brief introduction to the conceptualisation of tEA, its manifold activities and financial services was shared by Lhishezuu T Lohe, tEA’s assistant zonal head of East Zone.
She emphasised on the need for women to familiarise themselves with the concept of savings and to implement it in their daily lives.
Kewezulou Kupa, a member of Women Welfare Society, narrated her experience while Kupa, another member, highlighted the benefits of growing organic fruits and vegetables in larger quantities, which holds great value in the context of wholesale units, triggering a lucrative channel of income.
Kupa also encouraged the women to leverage the reputation that Kami village has as an “organic grower” with many communities flocking the area.
The SAIL training was conducted by Atsulie Chirhah, project associate of tEA. A total of 20 women were successfully trained on important business ideas and financial exercises such as budgeting, bookkeeping, branding, and electronic payments.
The SAIL training was followed by a skills training session conducted by Mhechieteu Tero, in which a total of 15 women were trained on making delectable tamarillo pickle as a way to generate additional income.
The training comprised of both theory and practical sessions to help the women develop a pragmatic approach towards learning livelihood generating activities.
The uplifting women street vendors programme is a flagship programme of The Entrepreneurs Associates, launched in October 2017, to empower women involved in the network of marketing farm produce.
“The programme is unique to tEA and one of a kind in the entire NER India. It engages with women street vendors, producers who also sell their yields and aggregators who link rural products with the urban markets,” the release stated.
Till date, tEA has trained and worked with 7000+ women street vendors in Nagaland, Manipur, Assam, and Arunachal Pradesh with plans to branch out to other neighboring states.
“Under the programme, tEA has been providing training on financial and business management, skills training, health and legal services, mentorship and linkages to markets and zero interest loans. tEA hopes that by 2025, 10,000 women street vendors will be impacted under the programme,” it stated.