Empowering women, one business at a time
Yozmot Atid has helped over 5,500 women in Israel work toward economic independence
Some 40 female Jewish and Arab small business owners from Jerusalem joined a few hundred other attendees last week at the city’s YMCA to network, exchange ideas and look for new businesses.
The event was sponsored by Yozmot Atid, an NGO founded in 2015 that works to empower women coming from a financial crisis or low socioeconomic situations and enables them to start their own businesses.
Since 2015, Yozmot Atid has had over 5,500 alumni and lends their services to over 1,000 women per year from all sectors of the country.
Through Yozmot Atid’s initiatives, women have the opportunity to start “micro businesses,” usually from their own homes, including many different fields such as beauty, food, alternative medicine, graphic design, video, photography, and more.
Yozmot Atid CEO Tsofit Gordon said the organization helps women from all walks of life find economic independence. “It’s a way for women that come from all kinds of barriers like language, culture and age to find their economic independence,” Gordon said. “That is what we do.”
With the help of their partner, USAID, Yozmot Atid started a program in Jerusalem which helps more than 300 women each year. Women can participate in group business training, receive personal mentors, and attend special programs for both Arab and Jewish women, Gordon said.
She notes there are many different business meetings and workshops that integrate these women. They have the ability to learn how to film their business, how to use social media, how to make a business card in Canva, and how to create a website.
“We have special joint meetings where they talk about their business, their values, and their vision,” Gordon said. “These are the meetings that [the women] also talk about the differences between the cultures. Even though they all live in Jerusalem, they talk about the gaps and they talk about the opportunities of maybe creating something together.”
Gordon says that, although a majority of the women from east Jerusalem don’t speak Hebrew and most of the Jewish participants don’t speak Arabic, they are still able to share ideas.
“It’s a mystery in terms of how they can communicate,” Gordon said. “How can you create business relationships when you don’t speak the same language? Surprisingly, it can be done.”
Two women, Tamar and Rechab who speak different languages, got together because of their love for cooking.
“How can they work together? They don’t speak the same language so it’s really hard,” Gordon said. “And then I saw the magic happen because they created their business through
what they do. They do joint workshops where they cook and they give people a taste of all the cultures that they do.”
Gordon says that the program is challenging and isn’t something that just happens overnight. The women come from many different environments, some even needing transportation to events and meetings.
“It’s a journey and not a simple one,” Gordon said. “You think to yourself ‘wow’ good things can happen.”
Alia, who now has her own business within the organization, found out about Yozmot Atid through social media. She said that as a single mom, it was exactly what she was looking for.
“I needed something to do at home – my own business at home,” Alia said. “I saw that the program answered all the questions about the job I needed and it was for women.”
Alia works at a college for girls and found the connection to women to be meaningful to her. She said that Yozmot Atid was able to give her the basics and fundamentals of starting
her own business.
“I was selling decorations and small things for the home but it was miserable,” Alia said. “I didn’t have the basics for my business but when I entered the program they gave us all the basics to start.”
She shared that the advice they gave her, helped her to move her business forward. “The advice they gave us helped me to go on, to not stop, to not get upset, and to be strong all the time,” Alia said.
She now has her own candle and wax business that she started in March. She says that it can be a present for multiple occasions such as weddings, birthdays, and graduations.
“I’m making memories for these occasions,” Alia said.
Alia said that despite her setbacks, this organization gave her power.
“I think that part of my life was bad,” Alia said. “Yozmot Atid gave me the power and now I want to say it for others. With Yozmot Atid , there is always hope, success and power.”