People's Choice Award winner
UD student, alum visit Singapore to pitch women's empowerment business model
1:08 p.m., Nov. 12, 2015--The University of Delaware’s Lindsay Yeager and Becca Leisher visited Singapore last week after their collaboration with Dare Women’s Foundation (DWF) in Tanzania won the People’s Choice Award from the United Nations Women Singapore Committee’s Project Inspire.
Yeager began working with DWF after a UD study abroad program in Tanzania, where she learned that a lack of access to feminine hygiene products keeps many girls out of school each year.
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Since that time, Yeager worked with UD students from the School of Nursing, Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering to create reusable fabric pads that Tanzanian women can make themselves using locally available sewing machines.
The program focuses on keeping girls in school and empowering women via a self-sustaining business model of creating and selling affordable feminine hygiene products.
In 2014, the Empowerment Through Feminine Hygiene project was chosen as a finalist in the Kenneth Cole For Good Campaign. The team also worked extensively with UD’s Horn Program in Entrepreneurship to further develop the project.
And now, the team's work with DWF has earned the highest number of crowdfunding supporters to win the Project Inspire People's Choice Award.
As a result, Yeager and Leisher had the opportunity to visit Singapore last week for the grand finals, which included three days packed with workshops, networking and mentorship from nonprofit leaders.
“By bringing together so many professionals and young change makers from all over the world who have similar goals of empowering women and girls, the Project Inspire Grand Finals made the world feel very small to me,” Yeager said. “It was great to meet the other finalists and their team members because we all have similar goals and live passionately through a combination of fundraising, office work and fieldwork.”
Leisher agreed, saying, “I have never before experienced so much professional development in such a short period of time. The workshop series was like startup boot camp, and I am eager to apply what I learned.”
Leisher, a senior economics student who serves as business and logistics support for the DWF team, added that they are “in such a better position to improve our project and affect more women at a deeper level.”
Click here to watch a video of Yeager presenting the project’s business model at the grand finals on Friday, Nov. 13.
About the Dare Women’s Foundation
The Dare Women’s Foundation, founded and directed by Maggie Duncan Simbeye, is a non-governmental organization that works to empower women in Tanzania to become strong, educated community leaders through projects focused on feminine hygiene care, entrepreneurship, nutrition education and conservation.
By providing resources like advising for small business start-ups, information and materials which promote education, nutrition and hygiene, and counseling support for female victims of violence and discrimination, DWF aims to create change in in Tanzania one woman and one community at a time.
For more information on the DWF, visit the website or contact info@darewomensfoundation.org.
About the Horn Program in Entrepreneurship
The Horn Program ignites imaginations and empowers world changers through entrepreneurial education.
The program’s offerings emphasize experiential learning, evidence-based entrepreneurship and active engagement with entrepreneurs, business leaders and members of the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Participation in Horn Program courses and co-curricular activities empowers students by providing them with the knowledge, skills, connections and access to resources needed to successfully manifest innovation and thrive in a rapidly changing world.