Rural Women as Role Models – Nana`s Story

Nana Kheladze, woman entrepreneur, the village of Sviri, Akhaltsikhe municipality.

“It’s been 4 years since I got married and moved from Tbilisi to Sviri. As I had experience in the field of baking I decided to continue this activity in the village and open my own bakery. Most of the women living in the high mountainous village are engaged in agriculture and do not have time to bake bread for their families. When I saw the need for bread in the village, I decided to apply for the project "Produce in Georgia" and opened a bakery.

As the demand for my bread was growing more and more, I started thinking about business development. Since my kneading machine was broken, I had to work by hand, which required a lot of time and energy. That is why I participated in the new initiative of UN Women and Taso Foundation and bought a kneading machine, which made my work easier and improved the quality of bread. Furthermore, I can spend more time with my family. Customer satisfaction is very important to me, so I always try to offer a fresh, tasty, and quality product to them. Currently, I have customers from three villages.

Rural women are less active than women in urban areas, so I always try to explain to them how important it is for women to be involved in various activities. I really wanted local women to take part in the women’s Economic Empowerment project and become active. Eventually, as women received funding and started their own small businesses, they are very happy with the result and now, other rural women are also interested in such projects.

I am happy, the lives of women in my community have changed for the better, and they have become more self-confident, motivated, involved in the decision-making process, and looking to the future with hope.

In the future, I am going to develop the baking business again. Given the current situation in the country, I would like to add a distribution service to my business. I am glad there are projects that help empower rural women”.

The project “Women’s Economic Empowerment project through Social Mobilization and Capacity Building” is part of the UN Women’s regional project “Women’s Economic Empowerment in the South Caucasus”, supported by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC). The project “Women’s Economic Empowerment project through Social Mobilization and Capacity Building” is implemented by Kakheti Regional Development Foundation (KRDF), Taso Foundation (TF), and CARE Caucasus (CARE).