WAVE (Women After Visiting Each other)

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WAVE (Women After Visiting Each other)

AfghanistanIran
Organization type: 
nonprofit/ngo/citizen sector
Project Stage:
Idea
Budget: 
$10,000 - $50,000
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Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

In many MENA countries, the number of women entering the higher education institutions are increasing, but many do not dare to enter any workplace and the working women are always complaining of problems.
WAVE is an Internet Forum for women to share their experiences of workplaces and employment.

WHAT IF - Inspiration: Write one sentence that describes a way that your project dares to ask, "WHAT IF?"

What if women of a region with the same culture, could exchange their experiences of working and workplace challenges?
About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

In Iran, Afghanistan and many middle east countries, the number of women entering the higher education institutions are increasing, but unfortunately many of them do not enter any workplace. Moreover, the rest who are working are always complaining of working conditions. According to studies, many women and/or their families do not trust to workplaces because of some problems might happen for them. But how to mitigate these conditions?

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

There is a term in "knowledge management" called "local knowledge". Studies show that this kind of knowledge has a higher impact on local communities and can solve their problems in a more efficient way. So our solution is based on the local knowledge of women themselves, especially those who are working, to take back the trust and confident to other women to work or to solve their problems in workplace. In order to have a space to exchange women experiences, we would establish an Internet Forum for them to communicate. The network is called WAVE (Women After Visiting Each other), a virtual place for women to express their experiences and problems due to employment and working and to get informed about other women comments and solutions.
Impact: How does it Work

Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.

Just imagine a woman who has a problem in her workplace, like an "Unequal Payment" or even a "Sexual Harassment", so she can complain about her problem in WAVE. Definitely there are some other women already experienced the same problems and now having local solutions -a negotiation or legally pursue- that could be shared. Another example, might be about a lighter problem like "Lack of Family Support" or "Work-life Unbalance" which could be solved by other women's solutions who live in the same culture. Maybe by suggesting a precise schedule, or some fast recipes or some convincing talks for family support.
Sustainability

Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?

I have not find any similar solution especially in Changemakers.com. Most of the solutions for women employment problems was concentrated on a single dimension. But WAVE is multidimensional and including any problem women faced in workplaces and is based on local knowledge sharing.
About You
About You
First Name

Farnoosh

Last Name

Mortazavi

About Your Organization
Organization Name
Organization Country
Country where this project is creating social impact

Project
Year founded
Impact
Impact: What is the impact of the work to date?

The Impact of WAVE is not only on working women lives and solving their common problems in workplace by local solutions, but also it could be a warning for the women who want to choose their workplace, and an awareness as well, for the ones who always have been thinking that workplace problems are unavoidable and unsolvable for women and there would be no trust to them.

Definitely talking to successful women who have fought against problems and approved themselves in workplaces are an encouragement for other women.

Anyhow, by discussion, women-friendly workplaces and discriminator ones would be manifested, so it could be an alert for many managers and company owners too.

Barriers: What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?

The most important barrier might be not being welcomed by women. To overcome this, prevailing advertising for WAVE in woman websites and magazines could be helpful. Also, in first stages we can award the best solutions or the most active users of the forum.

Full Impact Potential: What are the main spread strategies moving forward? (Please consider geographic spread, policy reform, and independent replication/adoption of the idea or other mechanisms.)

Although the first language for WAVE is Farsi and it could be usable for Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, but Arabic could be added, to make it useful for Arab nations in MENA, because the challenge is the same in the region, however problems faced by women in workplaces could be just solved in a local context.

Sustainability
Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure financial sustainability?

For financial sustainability i do not rely on membership fee. I prefer to have a free virtual space for discussion, because it is not fair to expect women not working to pay, and also it is not rational to expect working women to pay for expressing their problems or solutions.
So the best resource could be advertising related businesses like lawyers, family consultants and so on.
The project needs little budget, but for its advertisement.

Founding Story: Share a story about the "Aha!" moment that led the founder to get started and/or to see the potential for this to succeed.

Once I was talking to my spouse (who is the other member of the team) about the problems women faced in workplaces, and especially my friends' problems. I told to my spouse about the simple solutions I had given to them, based on my experiences. My husband suggest me to establish a blog or a website to write up my experiences. After some discussions we came to this conclusion that establishing an internet forum could be better, because there are so many women with better solutions which could be shared.

Partnerships: Tell us about your partnerships.

There is no partnership pattern yet,

Women Powering Work
Is your project targeted at solving any of the following challenges?

Building self-confidence and networks through role models, mentors, public campaigns, and more

Does your project utilize any of the strategies below?

Providing practical education or resources along with your main project, such as financial literacy, family planning, day-care, counseling, and more