EMPOWERMENT

PROJECT Manager’s
Experience
The project Warung Anak Sehat, co-created with Dompet Dhuafa, provides trainings to women on
healthy nutrition and entrepreneurship. With micro-credit they can open small cart shops where they
sell nutritious products for kids outside schools in Indonesia and deliver health and nutritional advice
to help mothers to put together balanced daily meals for their children.
The infographics for two of our projects in Indonesia – Srikandi and Merapi are coming up.
“Danone Ecosystem projects give us a
chance to explore innovative ways to reach
inclusive growth. Indeed, business as usual
leaves too many people behind, especially
women who don’t have the opportunity
to develop their potential fully. It is a sad
waste of talent. Women with better access
to the market can be drivers for growth
and can help reduce poverty. Through the
program Warung Anak Sehat, women are
empowered as micro-entrepreneurs and as
community leaders, to communicate the
impact of food on health. Reliable, flexible,
creative and hard working, they support
household income and gain a better control
over it. A larger part of this income is
invested in education of their own children.
As a woman working in Indonesia, I have
been sensitive to the gender inequality
issue and know the challenges women
face every day to live a life of dignity. It
is a women’s right to live free of fear and
to be able to regain self-confidence and
self-esteem. By giving them access to credit,
capacity building programs and markets
we have an impact on the health of the
household, productivity of the family and of
the community and most importantly on the
lives of the women themselves – creating
new opportunities for them.”
Jehanne Fabre
Warung Anak Sehat Project Manager
As a woman working
in Indonesia, I have
been sensitive to the
gender inequality
issue and know the
challenges women
face every day to live
a life of dignity
IT IS VERY KEY TO BE FULLY AWARE OF THE
CULTURAL CONTEXT AND ENVIRONMENT
IN WHICH WOMEN OPERATE.
“For me, Women’s Empowerment was
mainly about equal access, about
involving women and enabling them to
start businesses. Then, through project
evaluation, I realized that women needed
an enabling environment that allows them
to raise their children and at the same
time gives them the freedom to choose
and work in a sustainable way in the long
term. It is very important to be fully aware
of the cultural context and environment in
which women operate.
My message will be basic awareness
that it is not just access to jobs, incomes
or the ability of being a micro or small
entrepreneur for women, It is about all of
that, but it is also about how a company
like Danone can contribute to an enabling
environment for women in which women
and men are able to transform their lives
and relationships together in a way that
contribute to women’s empowerment
without backfiring.”
Valeria Budinich
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