Empowering women to become entrepreneurs through baking classes

The Zonta Club of Uzhgorod and My Transcarpathia in Ukraine partnered for the Social Enterprise Bakery project. The project's objectives were to create new working places for vulnerable women, decrease unemployment among women, improve their financial status and help them develop their entrepreneurial skills. 

With a US$4,986 grant from Zonta International, the project organized two roundtables and hosted 10 masterclass workshops and two business trainings. Nearly 250 women and 33 girls benefited from the project's activities.

After completing the workshops, participant Myroslava Kanyuka started her own bakery business, Tart Studio. She hired three female relatives and together they sell baked goods and organize paid workshops. Once a week, My Transcarpathia works with Tart Studio to organize free workshops for vulnerable women to continue the project.

Olha Ihnatsevych is grateful to the workshops for teaching her baking skills for free. She plans to open a business selling bread and rolls in the future.

"These workshops are the first free masterclasses in bakery for vulnerable women in Uzhhorod," Ihnatsevych said. "I'm going to continue my study, to visit the workshops in Tart Studio, which was opened thanks to the project and the financial support of Zonta International."

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