EmpowHer is a new project to empower women living with non-communicable diseases.
This project was birthed out of a research project we conducted in 2021, with funding from the Commonwealth Foundation. This research project explored the gendered impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people living with NCDs in St. Kitts and Nevis. One of the key findings of this project was that single mothers on a low income were particularly vulnerable during the pandemic. This was because they were already trying to manage their chronic illness while fulfilling their many roles and responsibilities, (being a mother, working, caring for older parents etc.) with sometimes little or no practical, emotional or financial support. As a result of this, they were exposed to a high level of stress which can exacerbate their NCD and the disaster-related stress caused by the pandemic compounded these issues.
EmpowHer aims to professionally, financially and personally empower women living with NCDs and we also aim to provide guidance on NCD self-management and self-advocacy to ensure that women can successfully manage their health condition and advocate for themselves.
Through this work, we hope that we will enable women living with chronic health conditions to live full lives where they are able to thrive.
The first phase of this project consisted of workshops falling under the following three categories
- Financial wellbeing for women living with NCDs
- Business and work-related skills training for women living with NCDs
- Workplace-related NCD self-management and NCD Self-Advocacy
Workshops began in February 2023 and ran until July 2023. During this phase, we reached 52 women through impactful and empowering sessions. You can read about the impact of each session here
We would like to thank the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the Department of Social Development and Gender Affairs for supporting this project by awarding us a grant. We are very grateful. We would also like to thank all our workshop facilitators for dedicating their time and sharing their expertise throughout this project and we are very grateful to all the ladies who participated in this project and attended our workshops. We are also very grateful to all our service providers without whom this project would have not been a success. Our service providers included caterers (Plantistique, Ital Creations and Cool Blendz), April Louis (graphic designer), Roma Richardson (editor), Tau Omowale (Social Media Officer) and our conference and meeting room providers (Credit Union, Nevis Red Cross, Gingerland School and CFBC). Finally, we would like to thank our Project Officer Terysia Herbert for her hard work and dedication to this project.
The first phase of this project was funded by the Republic of China (Taiwan), with support from the Department of Gender Affairs, as part of their Women’s Employment, Entrepreneurship and Financial Inclusion (WEEFI) project. You can find out more about the WEEFI project by watching the video below.
Launch Event
We hosted a launch event on Monday 13th February 2023 from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm. Speakers included:
Ambassador, His Excellency Michael Chau-Hong Lin, Resident Ambassador, Republic of China Taiwan
Ms Azilla Clarke, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Social Development and Gender Affairs
Dr Marissa Carty, NCD Programme Coordinator, Ministry of Health
Terysia Herbert-Browne, Project Officer, Lake Health and Wellbeing
Andrew Tseng Kuo, Project Manager, WEEFIP
Abi Begho, Programme Director, Lake Health and Wellbeing
You can watch the full recording of this event and a short 5-minute summary video below.
Contract Signing Ceremony
The contract signing ceremony for this project took place on 21st October 2022, you can watch the highlights from the contract signing ceremony below.