The Brazilian nonprofit organization Mais Unidos has partnered with the U.S. government to help women in Brazil learn how to finance, market, sell, plan, and expand a business through a program from the State Department, the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE).
Maria Josilene de Santana is the founder of Mangue Tecnologia and a specialist in innovation and technology. (Courtesy of Mangue Tecnologia)Launched in 2019, AWE provides women entrepreneurs with knowledge, networking, and access to launch or expand their businesses. AWE has already helped over 15,000 women in 80 countries around the world start or grow their businesses and adapt to new economic realities during COVID-19.
“All content is directed at a female audience, and the lectures and facilitation are also conducted by women,” said Sacha Senger, project manager at Mais Unidos.
Cleuza Souza founded VirtuALL HRpartner in 2018 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. (Courtesy of VirtuALL HRpartner)“We realized that the network created among them was something that also helped a lot in their development as entrepreneurs.”
Mais Unidos empowered 90 women for success as entrepreneurs in 2021 and plans to launch a new course in 2022.
Next, five former students from the 2021 program share how AWE helped them.
Maira da Costa, right, founded Free Soul Foods in São Paulo. (Courtesy of Free Soul Foods)Maria Josilene de Santana is no stranger to the challenges of succeeding in the information technology (IT) sector. “I felt firsthand all the difficulties of being a black, peripheral, and northeastern woman in Brazil managing a company in the field of information technology,” she said. During the AWE program, she learned how to face these challenges and expand her IT software company, Mangue Tecnologia. Her advice for other women entrepreneurs? “Don’t give up,” says Santana. “Don’t belittle yourself. The challenges are exactly what make me a stronger entrepreneur for the battles to come.”
Cleuza Souza started her own human resources and corporate management business, VirtuALL HRpartner, three years ago. She hoped AWE would help expand her business — and the experience was worth it. “During the program, I gained more confidence,”
Ana Lucia B Santos founded Social Visão do Bem to sell glasses in the communities of Rio de Janeiro. (Courtesy of Social Visão do Bem)said Souza. “As an incredible collaborative network of women formed, we learned together and supported each other, and that strengthened us all.”
Former lawyer Ana Lucia B Santos started her business, Social Visão do Bem, in Rio de Janeiro in 2017 to bring quality eye exams and vision care to underserved communities. Even seeing the need for prompt treatment for vision problems — in a region where waiting for an eye exam can take up to nine months — she faced difficulties with business management and tax regulations in Brazil. AWE provided her with a way forward. Santos said that to grow, it is also necessary to prioritize networks of relationships. “Today, I see that sustainable and impactful growth for my business is feasible.”
AWE showed Maira da Costa how to support her restaurant, Free Soul Foods, by building capital and working with other women entrepreneurs. “I noticed many strengths that I didn’t even recognize in myself,” she says. “I was able to better deal with imposter syndrome and build such a powerful sales pitch that I could use it to negotiate with potential investors.”
Elaine V. Fossarti redirected her beauty products business to children’s clothing and women’s fashion with Viela Kids Decor, but needed AWE’s help. “Entrepreneurship in Brazil is not easy,” she says. “There are many challenges, one of them being high taxes, in addition to prejudice and discrimination for being a black woman.” AWE showed Fossarti how to understand her customers and connect better with the business market in general, an experience she describes as a “watershed experience.”
Source: share.america.gov