Women for Strengthening their Families - Ana`s Story

Ana Kilasonidze is a mother of four young children from the village of Kartubani in Lagodekhi municipality. There are two kindergartens in the village where children often have a small celebration days and there is a great demand of carnival clothes. Since there was no relevant service in Kartubani village, the locals had to go to the center of Lagodekhi to buy carnival clothes and accessories. Ana has been interested in making various accessories and carnival clothing for a long time and always wanted to start this business, although she did not have enough financial resources for it.

In order to open a sewing enterprise, Ana participated in a project on Women's Economic Empowerment project supported by the UN Women. “I found the project very interesting and have been actively involved in its ongoing processes, attended meetings and took into consideration all project team’s advices”. The project helped Ana to make her dream come true and she purchased two sewing machines, as well as other materials for starting the business. In addition, she has also contributed her own resources and now she’s actively involved in an entrepreneurial career. Ana already has customers and wants to expand her business step by step. Everyday Ana thinks to improve the quality of her production and offers her costumers various interesting choices: bracelets, necklaces and earrings made of different materials; headbands; beautifully decorated dresses, etc.

Finally, Ana is very pleased with the initiative and believes such projects should be implemented in the villages in order to become women more active and empowered: “Unfortunately, women in the villages are hopeless. If more women's economic empowerment projects are implemented the villages will be more developed”.

In future, along with raising her children, Ana plans to open a sewing enterprise in a special building out of her home and employ other women as well. Since her current business includes mainly accessories, in future she will spend more time for designing carnival dresses and uniforms. Now Ana has a hope for a better future.

The project “Women’s Economic Empowerment through Social Mobilization and Capacity Building” is funded by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), implemented by Kakheti Regional Development Foundation (KRDF), Taso Foundation (TF), and CARE International in the Caucasus (CARE).