EMpower HK Board Awards $744,000 to Seven Partners in Asia

Posted 15 February 2023 in EMpower News   |   Share

This year, EMpower and its Hong Kong Board approved $525,000 in nine grants to grantee partners in emerging market countries in East and Southeast Asia. The board approved five grants totaling $398,000, and an additional $346,000 in four grants were internally approved.

Highlights from this latest round of grants include:

• We are excited to welcome BagoSphere as our new grantee partner in the Philippines. 
• We made a final grant to our long-time grantee partner, Feminist Approach to Technology.

Below is a short summary of the board-approved grants that we are making:

BagoSphere, Philippines ($80,000 USD for 24 months)

EMpower's first grant to BagoSphere will equip 70 marginalised young people with professional, digital, and life skills for decent employment in the BPO sector via a four-months training program certified by Ateneo Center for Educational Development (ACED). Additionally, EMpower’s funding will allow BagoSphere to scale their BPO Jobseekers Training Hub to reach more (young) people and increase the quality and richness of online career development offers. With EMpower’s flexible funding support, BagoSphere aims to strengthen its HR (development of an internal leadership development program) and boost its financial compliance.

Bahay Tuluyan Foundation, Inc., Philippines ($80,000 USD for 24 months)

EMpower’s fifth grant to Bahay Tuluyan will equip 150 young people with vocational skills in hospitality and agriculture, and 96 children and 120 young people will be offered life skills education. In addition, 40 young people will participate in a summer camp on life and job readiness skills, coupled with an internship, and 80 young people will be able to secure critical documents such as birth certificates and voter identification, and access government services. 

With EMpower’s flexible funding support, Bahay Tuluyan aims to strengthen its financial sustainability by putting more emphasis on building its reserves, investing in certification with a government body, and making improvements to one of its social enterprises to maximise income generation. The funding will also enable Bahay Tuluyan to strengthen its monitoring, learning, and evaluation, and to support staff salaries.

WeGrow Education, Vietnam ($105,000 USD for 24 months)

EMpower's second grant to WeGrow Education will strengthen the sexual and reproductive health knowledge of young people and enable behavioural change. It will sustain the delivery of its comprehensive sexuality education programme, throughout the whole school year. The organisation will run the programme in their three current project schools, reach out to four additional schools within the Thai Binh Province, and develop a new integrated app to enhance learning engagement. 

With EMpower’s flexible funding, WeGrow’s financial reserves will be strengthened, which will increase their operational ability by three months, in case of an emergency.

Feminist Approach to Technology (FAT), India ($90,000 USD for 24 months)

EMpower's 11^th and final grant to FAT will help them to strengthen the capacity of 28 young women and create the second line of leadership in their organisation by 2025, as they transition into a youth-led organisation. They will also build the skills and capacities of 17 adolescent girls to become managers and trainers at their three tech centres in India. These two cohorts (45 leaders) will work collectively towards FAT’s strategic goal of transitioning into a women- and girl-led institution in the next two years. 

EMpower’s partnership with FAT will continue through our Learning Community, beyond the sunset grant period.

Unnati, India ($35,000 USD for 12 months)

EMpower's second grant to Unnati will enable them to continue their existing library programme in the indigenous community. The grant will help to provide complementary education to 150 school-going and re-enrolled girls and 50 boys by setting up libraries within locally-run government schools. The focus is to improve the reading levels, financial literacy, health, and life skills of marginalised young people in the community. The programme will also engage key stakeholders such as schoolteachers, school management committees, health-care providers, self-help group representatives, and local self-governing bodies (gram panchayats) to improve school attendance by girls in Thane, India.