When Liuba Bojonka fi nished school, she considered going abroad in search of work. Fortunately, her friends and relatives convinced her to abandon this idea. Instead, in 2005, Liuba registered at the Stefan Voda Employment Offi ce and took part in its vocational train-ing course for seamstresses in October of that year. Not long after, the director of a local NGO informed her about the upcoming entre-preneurship project to be launched by Winrock and ICS. Through her participation in the entrepreneurship course, Liuba wrote a business plan for a sewing workshop and was provided with an in-kind grant of two modern sewing machines and other accessories that allowed her to start her own business.

Liuba opened her business in May 2006. When Winrock visited her in late July, Liuba was working on a skirt for Irina Malancea, a fellow vil-lager. Irina is proud of her friend’s success, and says that the clothes that Liuba makes are of the highest quality. Liuba works 8-9 hours a day, but she manages at the same time to take care of her house. Liuba may have inherited her talents from her mother, who worked as a seamstress at a tailor’s shop. At present, Liuba specializes in evening dresses and special orders. Her biggest achievement to date was fi lling an order for 30 T-shirts for 50 lei ($3.85) apiece in just one week. Liuba reports that demand for her services is growing and that this is in part due to her moderate prices, which are determined by the cost of the material used and the complexity of the tailoring required.

While Liuba presently works out of her apartment, she hopes one day to open her own stand-alone shop if fi nances permit and employ sev-eral girls from the village. She is especially proud to have been able to start her own business in her hometown. “Antonesti is my beloved village,” she says. “My relatives and friends are here. Everything that I’m doing is for them.”

Success Story August 2006

New Perspectives for WomenYOUNG WOMAN STARTS SEWING BUSINESS

About the Winrock - Italian Consortium Entrepreneurship Activity

In September 2005, the USAID-funded New Perspectives for Women (NPW) project signed an agreement with the Italian Consortium of Solidarity (ICS) to collaborate on a project to help vulnerable and at-risk girls and young women in the Moldovan regions of Causeni and Stefan Voda, including the village of Antonesti, to generate additional income. Through this collaboration, NPW conducted intensive, long-term entrepreneur-ship training for 67 girls from Causeni and 60 girls from Stefan Voda. From this initial group of trainees, 58 girls who had developed business plans for new start-up opera-tions were selected to receive $800 in in-kind grants. The grants were made possible by funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and were provided in the form of equipment required for the start-up of these new businesses by ICS. In ad-dition, participants benefi ted from extensive follow-on training and consulting assistance facilitated by both Winrock and ICS.

About the Winrock - Italian Consortium Entrepreneurship Activity

In September 2005, the USAID-funded New Perspectives for Women (NPW) project signed an agreement with the Italian Consortium of Solidarity (ICS) to collaborate on a project to help vulnerable and at-risk girls and young women in the Moldovan regions of Causeni and Stefan Voda, including the village of Antonesti, to generate additional income. Through this collaboration, NPW conducted intensive, long-term entrepreneur-ship training for 67 girls from Causeni and 60 girls from Stefan Voda. From this initial group of trainees, 58 girls who had developed business plans for new start-up opera-tions were selected to receive $800 in in-kind grants. The grants were made possible by funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and were provided in the form of equipment required for the start-up of these new businesses by ICS. In ad-dition, participants benefi ted from extensive follow-on training and consulting assistance facilitated by both Winrock and ICS.

New entrepreneurs from Antonesti share their storiesNew entrepreneurs from Antonesti share their stories