sou digna: from poverty to opportunity

Providing pathways from poverty to opportunity for women in

Salvador, Brazil

www.soudigna.org

Sou Digna/ I Am WorthyFrom poverty to opportunity in Salvador, BrazilCelebrating International Women’s Day --

March 8, 2013

Sou Digna was founded in 2011 to answer one community’s call for a way out of

poverty for poor women living in Salvador, Brazil.

Our story…

Sou Digna means “I Am Worthy.” It expresses the aspiration of poor Afro-Brazilian women to hold their heads high with dignity in front of

their husbands, children, and community.

Salvador, Brazil, is a city of over 3 million people, called the largest African city outside of Africa.

African-descent women in Salvador face the triple discrimination of race, class, and gender, and there are few ways to escape its relentless

poverty.

Sou Digna serves women who work as maids, street vendors, store clerks – or who don’t work at all – trying to improve their economic status at the same time that they build connections with others.

Sou Digna invests in women and girls because they have the most potential– as mothers,

community activists, and social beings– to be contributors to positive social change. Through

women, Sou Digna improves the quality of life for men and children.

Sou Digna provides training in cake-baking and technology and supports a new baking

cooperative as it provides women with a means to earn extra income.

Job training

Sou Digna provides supplementary education to women wanting to enter public universities.

Through its evening test preparation class, women are taught all basic subjects and receive mentoring

support.

University Access

Through weekly citizenship classes, women gain an understanding about their rights, learn skills that

help them navigate parenting and community engagement, and build connections that support

them outside of Sou Digna.

Citizenship

Sou Digna partners with Bahia Street, a program that provides high quality education to girls ages 6-14. Bahia Street gives poor girls a pathway to

university and middle class professions.

Sou Digna is led by women from the community being served, women who have achieved a

university education and are leaders and activists committed to the rights of women and the poor.

Sou Digna trained over 100 women

in 2012.

Former participants

formed a baking cooperative.

Bahia Street has graduated

hundreds of young women, with at

least twenty now in university. Together they

have become the leading women’s

center in Salvador.

Our Impact

“My husband used to hold a knife to my throat to stop me from going out. He doesn’t do that anymore.”

“This is the first diploma I ever got. I made a cake for my birthday. It was

pretty.”

“My maid income is not enough to live on. With this money, I am paying to fix our home and

investing in my life.”

Sou Digna is sustained through an international partnership of supporters, donors, and volunteers. We work across cultures,

languages, and borders to accompany this community of women on a journey from poverty

to opportunity.

Because of Sou Digna, women in Salvador

can say, “Eu sou digna.” I am worthy.

From poverty to opportunity. Join us.www.soudigna.org