Estonian Refugee Council, Garage48 and Ukraine's local partner Unity for the Future invite women from Eastern Ukraine to participate in the Empowering Women entrepreneurship program. During the program, women can come up with their own business ideas, the best of which receive start-up support and comprehensive mentoring to develop their sustainable enterprises to better support their families.

The ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine since 2014 has left many people in a vulnerable position facing everyday challenges, many of whom are also internally displaced. The situation is particularly difficult in households with disabled or incapacitated members.

For the first time, Estonian Refugee Council, Garage48 and Unity for the Future organized an entrepreneurship program for women in 2019, when 83 women were supported in Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia oblasts. As a result of trainings and grants, five sustainable small businesses were established at that time. The income of these women's families has increased by an average of 68%, which is directly due to participation in the program.

This year, the Women's Entrepreneurship Program will take place on 24-25. of April and 11-23. of May and to an even greater extent than last time. The two-part virtual training program, business grants and a 6-month mentoring program will support up to 300 women, from whom 60 three-member teams will be selected to take part of the training. By the end of the program, the top 20 teams will be financially supported. Women from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions can participate. There are no restrictions on business ideas and ideas from all fields can participate.

The project is supported by the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from development cooperation funds.