Zim secures opportunity for women at Expo Dubai

Dubai (New Ziana) –According to the International Labour Organisation, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in about 54 million women around the world going out of work, widening the already existing gender gap in employment.
The ILO further suggests that of the women who lost jobs in 2020, almost 90 percent exited the labour force completely, compared with around 70 percent of men.
It is in light of such trends that a United Arab Emirates based social enterprise- Evolvin’ Women, has come up with an initiative focused on giving life skills and securing employment in the UAE for African women from disadvantaged backgrounds.
On Wednesday, the organisation tied up an agreement with a Zimbabwean women empowerment movement, the Red Lipstick Revolution, kick-starting a two-year training and employment programme for disadvantaged Zimbabwean women.
According to the Evolvin’ Women website, the organisation works with several partners on the training and employment programme that is aligned to their talent management strategy, operational needs and Corporate Social Responsibility goals.
The partners, who include leading hoteliers in the UAE such as Accor Hotels and the Hilton Group, offer skill development placements and/or sponsorships to women who would have been selected for the initiative.
At the end of the placement, Evolvin’ Women works again with its partners to provide the women with the opportunity to take the experience and knowledge gained back to their communities.
Explaining the programme, Evolvin’ Women founder Assia Riccio said the organisation already has similar programmes with countries including Rwanda, Ghana and Zambia.
“The plan is to start enrolling a group of ladies (from Zimbabwe) in January-February so that by March they can be here to run the first pilot,” she said during the signing ceremony held at the Zimbabwe pavilion at the ongoing Expo2020 Dubai.
“We have a two year development programme for unemployed women from Africa who come from difficult backgrounds, we prepare them before they come to Dubai, we prepare them with interview skills we then make introductions to the private sector here in Dubai. We also provide training and development which is either financial literacy, leadership, mentoring, coaching, anything that can really help them while they are here.
“We have at the moment 100 ladies in the UAE programme, from Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia. Zimbabwe now is next along with Malawi and Ethiopia.”
Red Lipstick founder Dr Abigail Magwenzi said; “We have targeted 500 women, but we are going to phase our implementation, in order to give them an opportunity to work here in Dubai in the hospitality and retail sectors.”
A Dubai based immigration and labour expert, Thenjiwe Moyo who witnessed the signing ceremony commended the programme, highlighting its safety.
“I m a lawyer, I specialise in immigration and labour which means I do a lot of work with expatriate employees. I came across this programme and I recognised that there were ladies coming in from Africa in a very safe programme, getting the training and I offered to be one of the sponsors and train the women,” she said,
“I felt it was really important for people before they leave their home countries to understand what the laws are here before they catch that plane so we put together a training programme because what tends to happen is that people come to the UAE and they get shocked by the culture, the pay so we really want to make sure that we give the girls a soft landing.”
Commenting on the MoU, Expo2020-Zimbabwe commissioner general ambassador Mary Mubi said the initiative dovetails with Zimbabwe’s story at its Expo2020 pavilion.
“One of the things we are emphasising in the pavilion is that Zimbabwe may have over 60 known minerals, incredible bio-diversity and other things going for it but its number one asset is its people and we believe that it just does not reflect about the people in Zimbabwe but also those who have left the country to go and work outside I think they have distinguished themselves. Zimbabweans are resilient, hardworking and are able to work in many situations,” she said.
Mubi urged the programme to assist diasporans make better investment choices which will help them when they decide to relocate back home.
“Give them education about how they invest in their future lives because we find that whilst diaspora remittances to our country are over a billion dollars, we find that some of that money could be better invested, (for example) in long term assets which then can be utilised for doing other things and we believe that training is extremely important because then for the short period they are in Dubai, it then means that whatever monies they send home will prepare them either for further education, for business or for other things.
“They need to be empowered in terms of that, they need to understand that whilst the prime motivation maybe to support their immediate families but the adage about giving somebody a fish or you teach them to fish is true.”
New Ziana