Stories in Development

Small, incremental change can have a big impact.

In many regions of Sri Lanka, parents are often unwilling or unable to send their daughters to school when they have their menstrual cycles because they cannot afford basic feminine hygiene products. For girls from low-income families, this reduced access to education can have a lifelong impact. With increased attention and advocacy on this issue in the last few years by local organizations, social entrepreneurs, and now politicians, the momentum of positive change is tangible.

Organizations in Sri Lanka have worked to target the source of these issues, advocating for the reduction or relief from high tariffs that disproportionately affect women. We will follow the incredible women at the forefront of one organization that work directly with state and local governments, championing a reduction in tariffs on such products. We’ll come to know other leaders in private industry who shifted their company vision and strategy to develop a reusable pad that is affordable to all, taking on the issue of education around women’s health and the impact it can have in the workplace.

We will also meet a young high school girl in a rural village who may still be adjusting to the new reality of her body, but is able to attend school every day now that she has access to affordable feminine hygiene products. Through the journey of this young girl and her family, we will come to see how an education gives hope for a path of greater opportunity than was available to her parents.

Through experiencing the lives of these women, we see the power incremental change can have–the cumulative effect of one small change, then another, then another ultimately leading to greater work opportunities for women and a reversal in the tide of poverty.

It takes a lot of time and money to create a formal business in many South American countries.

It is almost impossible to have easy access to work space without experiencing harassment or bias. And often, there is a heavy burden of regulations and excessive permit fees. Today, the burden of inflation is also emerging in Peru, leaving many small business-owners to face uncertainty in securing their bottom line.

Around 70% of micro and small sized businesses are incubated by women. While many of these entrepreneurs face additional obstacles because of their gender, they nonetheless succeed. We will meet one of these women, Gladys, who has pushed through social and economic barriers to lift herself to economic success.

She comes from very humble beginnings in an Andean mountain village, steeped in poverty, to having her daughter become the first in her family to gain a college education. Starting as a street vendor, she grew the business into a thriving bodega. Her daughter now envisions building a chain of stores with the goal of becoming the first Peruvian-owned grocery chain. We will see the opening of the second bodega, which begins the expansion process. And it is not only the entrepreneurs who benefit from this growth. Jobs are then created for many other women who can begin their own path to economic independence.

But nothing is simple. The mother-daughter team see some things in different ways. How can they not? Their early-life experiences have been so different in many ways. We will see them work to resolve these contrasting perspectives, each with its own validity.