Brest Local Regional Development Fund

For over 8 years I have been working on different projects aimed at providing women with additional opportunities, from entrepreneurial skills to soft skills that would help them to fulfil their goals and to gain independence. I have implemented programmes aiming at  supporting social women's entrepreneurship and strengthening the role of women in business. I have also organised a  free Women Tech Hub training program on the basics of IT for girls.During my cooperation with young female entrepreneurs or just schoolgirls, I realized that they have a lot of business abilities, but they are also quite vulnerable from the psychological point of view. The traditional division of social roles limits women in their possibilities to set up and develop their own businesses, including those aimed at solving socially important problems. The Elevate Prize is the most real way to help girls from the regions of the Republic of Belarus  to acquire the skills and  to implement their own ideas in the field of social entrepreneurship. The award will help girls living in rural areas or small towns gain new knowledge, participate in meetings with experts, do internships and ultimately  organize social businesses in their regions.

I started my work with the female target groups when I was cooperating with IFC. This organization applied to  Brest local development fund  with a request to conduct trainings for women on how to create a business. As I was working with women, I became more and more aware of the reasons why they refuse to start their own business: namely, these are the restrictions coming from the stereotypes about the role of women in a society, which prevented them from developing the qualities necessary for entrepreneurs. In the next projects, we focused precisely on those matters that required strengthening and development, and strengthened them through practical meetings with various specialists. I was also invited to participate in the Coca-Cola Fundation program as a woman entrepreneur. I want to show by my example that business has a woman's face. I am developing my project to create an ecological garden of walnuts on the territory of the biosphere reserve of  Brest region. This is a new direction of business in our region. My goal is to prove that it is possible to be a businesswoman, that to achieve this goal  you should not let the society be an obstacle. 

Brest Regional Development Fund is a non-profit organization that promotes educational, social, cultural and charitable initiatives that contribute to the sustainable development of Brest region. The Fund was established in August 2012 and its main activities include regional development; development of professional competencies; supporting entrepreneurship; socially-oriented initiatives.

The Fund actively cooperates with foreign partners from Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Ukraine, as well as with local universities.

The educational center New Point was created on the basis of the Fund and has been operating since 2013. The centre has become a place where over 1000 people annually take part in trainings, seminars, round tables, and business meetings with foreign experts.

Since 2017, Brest Regional Development Fund has also been the Center for the Support of Entrepreneurship. The Fund also acts as a regional representative of the Startup School.

"Women in Business" project has been the main activity of the Fund since 2017. Many projects have been implemented which were aimed at the development of women's / youth entrepreneurship.

We have already helped over 200 start-up entrepreneurs in the region to start their own business. The organizations that build women's businesses are quite unique. According to the Belarusian statistical organization, as of January 1, 2020, women are mainly employed in social and educational spheres. The most "female" spheres of employment (the proportion of women in the total number of employed is 70% and more) are:

• public catering and temporary accommodation services (71.1%);
• financial and insurance activities (75.2%);
• education (81.3%);
• health care and social services (85.6%).

At the same time, women have an average income level of 25% lower than men.

We help women develop their entrepreneurial skills, create conditions for them and provide several types of assistance (financial, legal, mentoring) on the way to building their own business, not limited to the above areas. Women who are trained in the fund's programs work in various spheres, from farming to IT. We also support the participants by giving them the opportunity to see the examples of successful implementation of women's business ideas in Belarus and abroad.

In our organization, there is a cyclical nature of the study of women's entrepreneurship. We start with research that we conduct on a variety of topics and we always have up-to-date information on the current state of the female part of civil society. After receiving the information, we make the decision as to which problem is the most relevant at the moment. Then we study the opinion of women in the region who are interested in development, we meet them to discuss ideas for future programs. To solve the problem, we attract donor funds and international grants. Thus, we create a network of established partnerships both within our society and beyond. The funds of international donors are primarily the experience of similar organizations in solving similar problems. So, when implementing a project on Social Entrepreneurship, we invited the German expert Noorbert Kunz to share his experience in creating a business with a social emphasis. And after meeting in Belarus, we traveled to Berlin HUB, where Norbert Kunz successfully develops social businesses. After the implementation of projects, we keep on communicating with program participants,  offer them support and mentoring assistance from those entrepreneurs who already have successful businesses.