Mentorship helps women entrepreneurs adapt quickly to succeed in a
COVID‑19 era.

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[ [link removed] ]Mercy Corps

Thank you for being part of our global community of
supporters as a Partner In Mercy. Your monthly gift sustains our work, and
helps people across the globe know that someone cares.

Where will you be a year from now? These days, that can be a hard question
to answer. And as COVID‑19 unravels our future plans, it also reveals
existing disparities. Women worldwide are losing their livelihoods faster
than men, and women with small businesses are acutely affected.

But data shows that creating support networks and receiving mentorship
improves their chances of success. Cera and Silmi are among thousands of
women entrepreneurs who have benefited from Mercy Corps’ [ [link removed] ]MicroMentor
platform — connecting entrepreneurs to business mentors, including a new
[ [link removed] ]COVID‑19 Mentor Task Force.

[ Cera ]Cera

Cera grew up in Kenya. She tells her story:

"I was raised by a single mother who could barely afford the school fees
for my sister and I. We often missed weeks of school for paying late,
but with the help of family and friends, she always found a way to
scrape the money together. I never thought I would graduate high school,
let alone graduate from UCLA. Back then, I made a promise to myself: if
I graduated from college, I would use whatever resources I had to help
other girls get an education in the same way I had received support from
different people."

After graduating from UCLA, Cera returned to Kenya. She first heard about
[ [link removed] ]MicroMentor at a business women’s support group in Nairobi. One of the
women shared that her first chicken business had survived specifically
because of a mentor from India — a man whom she had never met. She
forwarded Cera the link to MicroMentor.

After searching on the MicroMentor platform, Cera eventually connected
with Eric, a mentor based in the US. He is helping her develop her
business, [ [link removed] ]Ecodunia, a line of leather wallets lined with reusable
grocery bags and colorful African prints, which gives back a portion of
profits to fund girls’ education. Cera says:

"Mentoring has been crucial for the growth of my business. It’s amazing
to workshop ideas with an astute business person who is rooting for me."

Silmi, an agricultural entrepreneur from Indonesia, co-founded a digital
platform called Etnogotani, which helps local farmers increase food
production profitability. Facing challenges in building her platform and
reaching her target market, Silmi joined [ [link removed] ]MicroMentor, where she was
connected with Satria, a mentor in Jakarta.

[ Silmi ]Silmi

In addition to increasing her confidence and skills, mentorship helped
Silmi learn about financial management, and she has hired three employees.

There is no one simple solution to closing the opportunity gap for women
entrepreneurs. But finding a circle of support is an important start.

[ [link removed] ]Learn more about how and why COVID‑19 disproportionately affects
women’s livelihoods — and how Mercy Corps is working to close the gaps in
business and beyond.

The
world needs more people like you who are curious about people beyond our
borders. In the spirit of this message, we hope you can take a moment
today to say thanks to someone special who you know is rooting for you —
and give a word of encouragement to let someone else know you’ve got their
back! Thank you for being part of our global community of
supporters. The world
needs more people like you who are curious about people beyond our
borders. We hope you can take a moment today to say thanks to someone
special who you know is rooting for you — and give a word of encouragement
to let someone else know you’ve got their back.

Sincerely,

[ Karen ]Karen

Karen Scriven
Mercy Corps Senior Director,
Gender Equality & Social Inclusion

Karen’s passion is to equip young people to become future leaders. She
collaborates with global teams to tackle harmful norms that perpetuate
inequality, and to gather evidence around what works to build resilience
for individuals and communities.

P.S. If you have business expertise to share, or are an entrepreneur
seeking support, volunteer or ask for help on [ [link removed] ]MicroMentor!



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