Single mothers who are beneficiaries of the SANDRATRA project have two training options: salaried employment or self-employment. After several training courses and appropriate career guidance, those who chose self-employment wrote their projects and defended them in front of a jury.
On 14 March 2024, the single mothers committed to self-employment took a decisive step forward. Each presented her project to a panel of judges. Each of the beneficiaries had five minutes to convince the jury, which was made up of representatives from the Nexta training organisation, the Antananarivo Urban Council, project coaches and the Action Education Madagascar team.
They had to prove to the jury that the various technical and refresher training sessions, and in particular the two months of training on entrepreneurship and business creation, had been very useful. Each participant carefully prepared her project presentation, describing how the idea for her self-employment project came about, based on her personal experiences, the problem solved by her project, the purpose of the project, where it would be carried out, the budget required and the turnover and profit forecasts.
The main criteria used to assess the projects were: the structure and clarity of the presentation, the relevance and profitability of the project, the socio-economic impact of the project, and the motivation and entrepreneurial skills of the single mother behind the project. The sustainability and potential extension of the projects were also discussed between the jury and the project leaders. The aim of this exercise is to support the development of sustainable self-employment projects with a decent income for the young single mothers involved. In addition, the brief presentation of the projects is part of Nexta's training, and aims to enrich the content of the projects and above all to improve the skills of the beneficiaries in terms of professional discourse that will be useful throughout their lives as entrepreneurs. Although they are all beneficiaries of funding from the SANDRATRA project, thanks to this module they will be able to mobilise other funding for the development of their self-employment projects at a later date.
This experiment is attracting a great deal of attention, and its success will open up new prospects for single mothers and their offspring.
The Sandratra project supports the socio-professional and civic integration of young single mothers who have dropped out of school in vulnerable neighbourhoods in arrondissements 1, 3 and 4 of the Antananarivo urban district. It is co-financed by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the L'Oréal Group.
