Celebration of Local Women Leaders in Yemen
Partners Yemen celebrated the graduation of the first cohort of women leaders for the Mareb region, who have successfully reached 40,000 women in their communities to educate them in basic health, education, and economic development.
On October 2, Partners Yemen celebrated the graduation
of 25 Social Facilitators and 248 Social Volunteers of the first phase of The
Balqees Initiative (TBI), which trains women in community engagement and basic
health, education, and economic development best practices. After recruiting
and training an initial 25 Social Facilitators (SF), the SFs trained an additional
248 women to be Social Volunteers (SV) in their own communities. These women
have conducted further community events and reached an estimated 40,000 women and
youth in the Mareb region. 
The graduation event was attended by about a hundred women leaders as well as several local supervisors and launched by Hassan Alwurafi, head of Studies and Research from the Women’s sector at the Ministry of Local Administration (MOLA). An external facilitator trained the attendees in simple networking techniques and how they can utilize their relationships to sustain program results and share experiences in the future. The TBI team also received feedback from the SFs and SVs on how the program was implemented and suggestions for improvement in the future. Graduation certificates were given to the women leaders as well as to their supervisors. A certificate of appreciation was also made for the governor of Mareb to acknowledge his great support for the program.
Later that day, Partners Yemen hosted a meeting with representatives from USAID and the US embassy and selected women leaders. The participants discussed lessons learned and challenges of the program with the Social Facilitators. Ray Shonholtz, president of Partners for Democratic Change, also attended the event.
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