特征empowering women in latin america

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Nilcinea Oliveira was watching television in the seaside town of Itaipava in northern Brazil when she saw a story about how to make soap with used home cooking oil. In this port community, most men make a living fishing, but the employment opportunities for women are limited, and the report sparked an idea that would change her life.

“The story gave me the notion to make cleaning products by recycling the cooking oil to earn extra money for my children and my husband and to help the environment,” she said.

Today, Oliveira’s company produces cleaning products and employs 19 women. The project received support through the Community Inclusion Project (Projeto de Inclusão Comunitária), a nonprofit organization that trains women in small business development. Chevron partners with local nonprofits like the Community Inclusion Project and nongovernmental organizations across Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela – where our affiliates and subsidiaries have worked for more than 90 years – to provide microloans, education and job training to improve women’s livelihoods.

Since 2011, more than 10,000 women throughout Latin America have received job training, skills development and small business microloans through Chevron-supported women’s empowerment programs.

“In our region, women play a vital role in almost every household and in contributing to local economies,” said Patricia Serrano, Policy, Government and Public Affairs general manager for Chevron’s Latin American Business Unit. “The women’s empowerment programs we support generate sustainable economic opportunities that benefit low-income families, foster gender equality and positively affect future generations.”

在21世纪的第一个十年，世界银行报告，劳动力妇女的捐款将拉丁美洲和加勒比人民贫困减少30％。

我们对妇女赋权计划的支持与我们拉丁美洲国家合作伙伴建立的当地优先事项对齐。这些方案通过卫生，教育和经济发展的社会投资，消除经济增长的障碍。

2008年，非营利组织民间协会的人雪佛龙和纳劳格成立了委内瑞拉的第一个妇女企业家网络，称为Empremujer，该网络在过去四年中为近4,100名妇女提供了微量汉语和业务发展培训。

“雪佛龙认为，支持女性企业家是赋予女性最有效的方式之一，将其定位为财富的发电机，作为未来的伪造者，”Bauauge的业务发展经理Harry Lopez表示。据委内瑞拉国家统计研究所称，在委内瑞拉，妇女的赋权计划很重要，因为妇女负责人数大约40％的家庭，这是拉丁美洲的最高水平。

For more than ten years, Chevron has supported the development of Emprered, a nonprofit organization that has trained nearly 7,000 entrepreneurs in four Venezuelan states in project planning, marketing, finance and other skills necessary to develop successful businesses.

雪佛龙also supports Dressed With Dreams (Vístete de Sueños). The Venezuelan-based nonprofit trains formerly abused women to create and design clothing and gives them the skills to start their own businesses, encouraging financial independence. The program has involved an estimated 1,050 people since 2012.

“每天早上你有一个新的机会才能开始，昨天脱掉你穿的衣服，给它一个新的图案，缝起来再次把它放在上面。现在你是一个新的你，你更新，“穿着梦想的创始人Alberto de Castro说。

In Argentina, we partner with the Other Voices Foundation (Fundación Otras Voces), a nongovernmental organization, to support Entrepreneurs in Action (Emprendedoras en Acción). The program provides training in accounting, marketing, and business and personal development as well as other support. Program participants are women from poor neighborhoods in the city of Neuquén who want to establish cooking and sewing enterprises that enable them to support their families. From 2013 through 2014, our support helped nearly 200 women participate in Entrepreneurs in Action.

根据数据流行的数据，在巴西，贫困妇女的收入占家庭收入总收入的约40％。此外，巴西地理和统计研究所报告说，由单身妇女领导的家庭占全国所有家庭的35％，患有贫困病情的可能性较差70％。巴西总统使妇女经济权力赋予妇女的政策优先考虑妇女为改善国家经济的贡献。

雪佛龙’s support of the Community Inclusion Project, which helped Oliveira build her business, has benefited approximately 440 participants from 2011 through 2014.

In addition to supporting the Community Inclusion Project, in 2014 Chevron launched its support of another Brazilian organization, the Rede Asta Network. The organization helps female artisans in low-income areas build small businesses through training, forming production networks and setting up sales channels to sell crafts. Chevron employee volunteers conduct workshops with the network to improve business management skills with a goal of increasing sales by 35 percent by the end of 2015. Of the 48 small businesses assisted by the network, our investment in 2014 helped support 11 small businesses involving 55 women.

在哥伦比亚北部沿海地区的年代tate of La Guajira where we operate, fishing is a way of life to the indigenous Wayúu communities of the region. It is one of the country’s most impoverished states. For nearly 40 years, we have worked with the Wayúu, producing energy, strengthening the communities’ capabilities and respecting local customs. Our programs address community needs involving women’s and family health issues and provide economic opportunities.

“Among the Wayúu, women have the responsibility to give continuity to our traditional and cultural heritage by teaching our children so we can guarantee they can have better education while keeping their cultural indigenous background,” explained Danis Cohen, Chevron’s Policy Government and Public Affairs coordinator for the Guajira District. Cohen, who is Wayúu, said, “Our health and economic programs empower Wayúu women and our culture.”

雪佛龙, Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine support SAIL (Salud y Autosuficiencia Indígena en La Guajira), a pediatric program that is working with the community to decrease high morbidity and mortality rates for children and women in La Guajira. Chevron also partners with a cooperative of Wayúu women to provide weaving materials, training and marketing support. In 2013, Chevron received an award from Artesanías de Colombia, a government organization focused on protecting and developing Colombian culture, including the handcraft sector. From 2011 through 2014, approximately 1,860 women participated in the program.