Article by Emily Zhu, intern with the U.S. Department of State, currently studying Psychology and Political Science at the University of Michigan.

headshot12.jpg Nigerian designer and AWE alumna Bolupe Adebiyi founded an ethical fashion business - all based on black and white. Photo by Eleanor Goodey

[Nigeria, June 2022] From Las Vegas to Lagos to London, fashion watchers know the signature black-and-white design of Cotton Loops, a Nigerian brand of womenswear founded by Bolupe Adebiyi – a business Adebiyi was able to expand thanks to her participation in the U.S. government’s Academy for Women Entrepreneurs.

Conscious of giving back to the community and wanting to showcase “the creativity and diversity of the capability of Africa,” Adebiyi established Cotton Loops in June 2018 after attending the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London.

Cotton Loops designs use only black and white, showcasing both an edgy and a classic look, and often feature pockets attached to the dresses, allowing them to be practical and stylish at the same time.

"One piece of Cotton Loops can take you from breakfast at home to meeting at work, to picking up your kids at school," Adebiyi says, "I want to bring back the idea of having stylish dresses that can function for whatever you want them to do."

cotton_loop220.jpg Models wear designs made from sustainably sourced linen, ethically handmade by artisans at The Cotton Loops factory in Lagos, Nigeria. Photo by Deji Majek

Perhaps less known is the fashion house’s focus on environmental protection and sustainability, two goals that Adebiyi has incorporated into her business model - a story which starts through adversity.

Like many entrepreneurs, Adebiyi experienced difficulties in manufacturing. She visited eight different manufacturers before reaching an agreement, and still was not able to reach production capacity – which eventually pushed her to open her own factory.

Today, Adebiyi controls the entire process of Cotton Loops production, from manufacturing to sales, giving her the freedom to focus on ethical standards, such as opposing child labor, upcycling production waste into lifestyle accessories, and avoiding animal by-products like leather and fur.

AWE helped Adebiyi expand her fashion business through access to greater resources. Photo by Deji Majek

In addition, Cotton Loops aims to empower women by hiring disadvantaged women from the local community, providing them a fair wage and a safe workplace – and their families a chance at a better life. The company launched an initiative called 10,000 Girls to provide low-income young women with job skills training as part of the end-to-end circular production ecosystem.

Adebiyi says that the Academy of Women Entrepreneurs Program (AWE) helped her to get where she is today.

“What AWE provided me was access,” says Adebiyi, connecting her to a larger entrepreneurial community that helped her to grow. AWE also provided her the opportunity and skills to apply for funding and other resources to improve the capacity of her factories, increase merchandising, and strengthen her company’s brand.

For example, after graduating AWE, Adebiyi was one of only 10 people from six countries nominated to take part in the first Africa Intensive Fellowship, a partnership between Halcyon Incubator and Amazon Web Services to promote social entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa.

cotton_loop2.220.jpg Cotton Loops aims to empower women and girls in Nigeria through fair wages and job training. Photo by Deji Majek

Moreover, her AWE training helped her to raise more than $50,000 in non-equity funding through the Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton and U.S. government grants like the International Visitors Leadership Program Impact Awards and the U.S. African Development Foundation.

Grateful for the help she got through AWE, Adebiyi decided to give back by mentoring women entrepreneurs who struggle with similar problems she did. She formed a group to support women and promote AWE in Nigeria, and regularly speaks at AWE events about her entrepreneurship journey.

More than just a fashion designer, AWE alumna and social entrepreneur Bolupe Adebiyi uses her experience to promote ethical business standards and mentor the rise of other women entrepreneurs. Photo by Deji Oluokun

Today, Adebiyi’s outlook on her company is global; she has been to trade shows in 15 cities from London to Las Vegas, and her merchandise is selling in 25 countries. She believes that Cotton Loops shows how ethically utilizing African resources can lead to global success - and she is thankful to AWE for help along the way.

For more information, please visit: https://eca.state.gov/awe.

[Manila, June 2022] When American Center Director Mylyn Garcia wakes up each day in Manila, her mission is clear: to connect Filipinos to American culture and create greater engagement with the United States through English training, educational exchange, and cultural programming.

mylyn_at_amspace_event_.jpeg Manila’s American Center Director Mylyn Garcia sees a lot of potential for promoting closer ties to the United States through women’s entrepreneurship programming.

In 2020, the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines’ American Spaces opened a new frontier, promoting women’s empowerment with the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs – or AWE.

“Entrepreneurship is new for us,” says Garcia. “Especially working with small and medium enterprises.” She sees it as an exciting development with a lot of potential. “We are starting to focus more on startup incubation and getting access to seed funding.”

In the Philippines, AWE spans four islands across the archipelago and is implemented through American Corners programming hosted by local universities. Operating in the cities of Cebu, Bacolod, Marawi, and Manila, AWE Philippines reaches women entrepreneurs who struggle to get a foothold in economies severely impacted by climate change and COVID-19.

american_corner_bacolod_director_with_pao_john_groch_1.jpg U.S. Embassy Manila oversees 15 American Corners in the Philippines who mission, like here in Bacolod, is to connect Filipinos with the United States. [Photo courtesy of Mylyn Garcia]

“We launched in October 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, which hit the Philippines hard.  A lot of people lost their jobs,” explains Garcia, adding that to survive, many women began small businesses with handicrafts, both online and in person, with varying success. “Many women didn’t know what to do, they didn’t have confidence.”

But Garcia says AWE’s three-month course in business taught women the skillsets they need to run a business and gave them the confidence to get it off the ground – which was critical during the 2021 storm season.

“Cebu is considered like a second capital after Manila, and when Typhoon Rai hit in 2021 people really suffered,” says Garcia. “There was no electricity for a month.”

1d6a3132.jpg U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Heather Variava addresses a crowd at Cebu’s American Corners, whose facilities helped women entrepreneurs to pursue AWE training following Typhoon Rai. [Photo courtesy of Mylyn Garcia]

Super Typhoon Rai was one of the region’s strongest storms on record, and it devastated the Philippines, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

After the storm, women entrepreneurs came to the University of San Carlos to take advantage of the American Corner’s stable internet. While at the American Corner, they learned about core business skills including strategic planning, marketing, and financial management.    

“We visited Cebu three months ago,” says Garcia. “Women there told us that AWE empowers them, it is helping them to recover.”

In the city of Marawi, AWE helps female heads of household on Mindanao, Philippines’ southernmost island, which in recent years has been besieged by increasing violent extremism.  AWE helps women create localized economic prosperity and promotes peace and stability, while also creating businesses that directly support community health.

awe_marawi_in_action.jpeg AWE is helping female heads of household in Mindanao promote local prosperity in the face of rising violent extremism. [Photo courtesy of Mylyn Garcia

“We had a team of AWE alumnae from Marawi join a USAID-sponsored hackathon to promote the needs of internally displaced people, and they won an award,” explains Garcia.   

Marawi’s AWE graduates developed an online platform called Unawa, which means “understanding” in the Tagalog language, to help people get free access to mental health practitioners.

“They said their win was due to the AWE training they got,” says Garcia – a remarkable achievement in a country where mental health care is deeply stigmatized.

sny00117_1.jpeg These three women entrepreneurs from AWE Marawi said their AWE training equipped them with the tools they needed to develop an online mental health portal.  [Photo courtesy of Mylyn Garcia]

AWE’s use of the online learning platform DreamBuilder, developed by Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management and the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation, allows the American Corners to strengthen program offerings in ways that deepen ties between the Philippines and the United States.

“We love AWE,” she says, “because it is free and open to everyone.” This is critical in a country where, due to high cost, upper education is out of reach for many.

“AWE’s connection to Thunderbird actually increases Filipinos’ interest to join,” says Garcia, adding that local officials have asked the U.S. Embassy to implement AWE in their cities. 

Garcia also says AWE is an asset to American Corners programming, because it allows the Corners to engage with audiences they otherwise cannot reach.  She tells the story of Kusinata, one alumna’s restaurant in Bacolod, which specifically hires indigenous people from the remote Ata tribe as cooks, servers, and staff.

awe_grads_.jpg Alumnae from AWE Bacolod gather at the Kusinata, a restaurant opened by an AWE alumna which hires only indigenous staff from the Ata community. [Photo courtesy of Mylyn Garcia]

“Too often these people are forgotten, they live in mountains, many are illiterate,” Garcia explains.  “But the restaurant attracts tourists.  It provides training that helps the local community explore other opportunities,” which brings Filipinos of all stripes in closer contact with U.S.-government programs.

“We normally can’t target that audience. But thanks to AWE, we are now able to reach them.”

The U.S. Department of State launched the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs in 2019 to empower women with the knowledge, networks and access they need to launch or scale a business. To date, AWE has trained more than 16,000 women entrepreneurs in 80 countries, including more than 300 women in the Philippines.

For more information: https://eca.state.gov/awe

img_7229.jpg Social entrepreneur and U.S. Exchange Alumna Manuia Maiti dedicates herself to training Pacific islanders how to run sustainable businesses. ©Manuia MAITI

[Tahiti, June 2022] French Polynesian entrepreneur Manuia Maiti knew she wanted to contribute to her country’s economic development when she was just 19.  A recent university graduate in Tahiti, she realized her country had a huge trade imbalance and she wanted to do something about it.

“I felt lost in my life sometimes. So, I started participating in trainings, which shaped my idea to open my own trade-export business to contribute to my country,” says Maiti.

Maiti was selected in 2019 for the Young Pacific Leaders (YPL), a U.S. government exchange program designed to harness the potential of civic and business-minded youth across the hundreds of islands in Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.

80863543_10220399188307054_5182377156478500864_n.jpeg Meeting entrepreneurs in five U.S. cities during the International Visitors Leadership Program inspired Maiti to launch her own business based on humanity and empowerment. © Cynthia Norcross Willson

She was later chosen for another prestigious U.S. government exchange, the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) and traveled for three weeks from Washington D.C. to Honolulu to learn about cutting-edge startups.

It was the city of Detroit that won her heart.

“I was so inspired by the stories of social entrepreneurs – seeing how Detroit went from decay to revival through startups and new technologies, attracting more small businesses.”

Maiti brought these lessons home to the Pacific and founded Tahiti Art Crafts, an online marketplace for artisans operating across 118 islands in the Pacific.  Her goal is to provide local artisans with greater exposure to international markets, to support greater export of Polynesian traditional goods, like baskets and wood carvings.

image-from-rawpixel-id-5962975-jpeg.jpg French Polynesia’s remote island geography poses a challenge for entrepreneurs. [Photo: Public Domain]

The challenge for most Tahitian artisans is geography – most live on tiny specks of land in the vast Pacific and have little interaction with outsiders, making it hard to start a business. 

“In some islands, a lot of people know how to weave and make mats,” says Maiti.  “If you have exposure outside of where you live, only then you can sell your products.” 

Beyond helping to build an online marketplace, Maiti is helping to teach islanders how to value traditional crafts through her NGO TUPU. With TUPU she launched a project called Rima’ī for a Sustainable Living, which she founded with a Young Pacific Leaders small grant.

Rima’ī means “handicrafts” in Tahitian.  The project offers 3-day workshops that provide practical skills training in registering a business, simple accounting, pricing, and the basics of photography with a phone.  The goal is to create consistent pricing structures and find a marketplace to make their activities sustainable.  Maiti hopes this will also help artisans to properly value their craft. 

img_5446.jpg Polynesian wood carvings and other handicrafts stem from a long cultural tradition, passed down from generation to generation. ©Tahiti Art Crafts

“Rima’i for a Sustainable Living is a rural program to raise awareness among indigenous populations that handicrafts are valued, and can be a means to earn a living,” says Maiti.  Polynesian art varies from island to island and involves traditional techniques that are handed down through the generations – a practice which is slowly dying out. 

Maiti’s experience as a social entrepreneur made her a natural fit in 2021 to implement French Polynesia’s first cohort of the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE), a global women’s economic empowerment exchange program of the U.S. Department of State.

img_6721.jpg To train women the skills they need to launch or scale a business, Maiti sent AWE training materials by boat to remote Pacific islands of Bora Bora and Mo’orea. ©Manuia Maiti and TUPU

“We sent our training materials by cargo boat and took small planes to Bora-Bora and Mo’orea,” she says, beaming at the memory of training 60 women over two months on two remote tropical islands. “It was so hot!” 

AWE uses digital technology and the DreamBuilder online learning platform, developed by Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School for Global Management with funding from the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation, to teach women core business skills like strategic planning, financial management and marketing.

04.bora_bora_market.jpg Maiti visits artisans at a local market in Bora Bora as part of entrepreneurship training. © Manuia Maiti and TUPU

“AWE is transformational. It is a very dense, complete program that touches on all aspects of business,” she says. “In 4 weeks, we saw women go from being shy with hunched shoulders, to standing up tall, showing prototypes of their products and trying new things.”

AWE was one of the first in-person programs to resume in Tahiti after COVID, and Maiti says it could not have come at a better time. “People here have suffered during the pandemic. Some islands depend on tourism here, and a lot of people lost their jobs.”

pink_october.jpg Maiti and her AWE cohort celebrate the end of training on the island of Mo‘orea.  @Manuia Maiti and TUPU

She hopes that her online platform will help bring her corner of the world closer to global consumers – and keep the best of Tahitian culture alive. She says her experience as a U.S. exchange alumna has been pivotal to her own development as an entrepreneur; it also inspires her to teach other women about business and build up the entrepreneurial ecosystem around her.

“When you feel you want to do something – go for it,” she says. “Dream your dream.  You have to shine, so that you enable others to shine.”

img_7124.jpeg Since 2021, AWE has empowered more than 500 women across the Pacific to launch or scale their business. ©Manuia Maiti and TUPU

Launched globally in 2019, AWE has empowered more than 16,000 women around the world with the knowledge, networks, and access they need to launch or scale a business.  Since 2021, U.S. Consulate Auckland has run one of the world’s largest AWE programs in the Pacific, serving more than 500 women across New Zealand, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Niue, and Samoa.

The United States recently hosted the Ninth Summit of the Americas from June 6 - 10, in Los Angeles, California. The theme for this summit was “Building a Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Future,” responding to the hemisphere’s most pressing issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic, threats to democracy, the climate crisis, and a lack of equitable access to opportunities. 

The Summit of the Americas brought together leaders from governments, the private sector, and civil society (including youth leaders) to discuss these issues and mobilize action. This year, some of the youth leaders who traveled to the Summit were Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) fellows and alumni! The U.S. Department of State acted in supporting five outstanding 2022 YLAI fellows to travel as youth delegates to the Summit of the Americas, where they served as a voice for the YLAI fellowship program, their communities, and youth across the region. Get to know them here!

bevon-150x150.jpeg

facundocajenheadshot.jpeg

georgiaheadshot.jpg

gerardo-alberto-perez-munoz-headshot.jpeg

jose-luis-villatoro-villaherrera-headshot.jpeg

The YLAI Fellowship Program is funded by the U.S. Department of State and implemented in 2022 by IREX.  Follow the 2022 YLAI Fellowship Program on social media at #YLAI2022.  For press inquiries, please contact the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at ECA-Press@state.gov.  For more information on joining the free YLAI network or how to apply for the upcoming YLAI fellowship program, please visit https://ylai.state.gov/.

ytili_group_photo.png

Last month, 47 business and social entrepreneurs from 36 countries in Europe began the 2021 Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative (YTILI) Fellowship Program. Over the next five weeks, the YTILI Fellows will collaborate with companies and social enterprises in one of nine U.S. cities (Albuquerque, NM; Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; Denver, CO; Detroit, MI; Huntsville, AL; Philadelphia, PA; San Diego, CA; and Seattle, WA) to deepen relationships and increase business ties between the United States and Europe.

The YTILI Fellows will conclude the program in June 2022 with a closing program in Washington, D.C. and will join over 300 YTILI Fellowship Program alumni.

Launched in 2016, the YTILI Fellowship Program promotes mutual understanding, enhances business and leadership skills, and builds lasting partnerships between business leaders from Europe and the United States and empowers young European entrepreneurs to grow their ventures, foster global partnerships, and positively impact the economic development of their communities. 

 The 2021 YTILI Fellows were selected through a competitive application process, with over 500 eligible applicants. They work in diverse industries including clean energy, health care, information technology, education, and food and beverage.

We invite you to read their profiles here.

The YTILI Fellowship Program is funded by the U.S. Department of State and implemented by WorldChicago.  For more information on the YTILI fellowship program, please visit https://ytili.org/.

43439119110_50aa59a033_o.jpg

Greco-Roman Stele from Cyrene, Libya

The State Department follows the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (CPIA) when considering cultural property agreements and import restrictions.

Belize Extension

Extending the Belize agreement would continue import restrictions on stone, metal, ceramic, bone, shell, wood, and glass objects from the Pre-Ceramic Period (c. 9,000 B.C.) through the Late Colonial Period, which are at least 250 years old. The Government of Belize has not requested additional categories of material.

Libya Extension

Extending the Libya agreement would continue import restrictions on certain archaeological material ranging in date from the Paleolithic Period (c.12,000 B.C.) to 1750 A.D. and certain ethnological material derived from sites of Islamic cultural importance which may include categories of stone, metal, ceramic, bone, ivory, shell, glass, faience, semi-precious stone, painting and drawing, plaster, textiles, mosaics, wood, leather, parchment and paper. The Government of Libya has not requested additional categories of material.

Public Comments

The public may provide written comment in advance of the meeting and/or register to speak in the virtual open session scheduled for July 26, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. EDT.

Public comments on the cultural property agreements should focus on the four determinations in the CPIA.

How to submit written comments:  Use regulations.gov, and follow the prompts to submit written comments.  Written comments must be submitted no later than July 19, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. EDT.

How to make oral comments: Make oral comments during the Virtual Open Session on July 26, 2022 (instructions below).  Requests to speak must be submitted no later than July 19, 2022.

Join the Virtual Open Session

The virtual open session of the Committee meeting will be held on July 26, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. (EDT) using Zoom.

To Speak:  Registered participants can speak and may be asked questions by the Committee.  If you wish to register to speak you must submit your name and organizational affiliation in an email request to culprop@state.gov by July 19.  After you pre-register you will receive an email response with a unique link and instructions on how to participate.  Due to time constraints, each participant will have no more than five minutes to speak.

To Observe:  Anyone may observe the open session through Zoom, but they will not be able to speak.  It is not necessary to pre-register to observe.  If needed, please request reasonable accommodation by email to culprop@state.gov no later than July 19.  It may not be possible to fulfill requests made after that date.

Zoom Information

Meeting Link: https://statedept.zoomgov.com/j/1613498912?pwd=QkxvMWY4L05QQlE3bDdOTGpDdkFpZz09

Meeting Passcode: 865614

Webinar ID: 161 349 8912

To attend by phone: 1 (669) 254 5252

Last month, the National Museum of American Diplomacy hosted a discussion with Ukrainian museum leaders on efforts to protect and preserve Ukraine’s identity and cultural heritage threatened by Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked war.

“Ukraine’s cultural heritage is irreplaceable, and its damage or destruction would be a profound loss to the entire world,” said Assistant Secretary of Educational and Cultural Affairs Lee Satterfield, who opened the dialogue. “Today, I’m hopeful that this conversation is a catalyst for collective action so we may all support the people of Ukraine in this important way.”

Director of the Mystetskyi Arsenal in Kyiv Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, Director of the National Maidan Museum Ihor Poshyvailo, and Acting Director of the Khanenko Museum Yuliya Vaganova joined virtually from Ukraine. They shared their experiences and connected with U.S. counterparts, including Distinguished Scholar and Ambassador-at-Large for the Smithsonian Institution Dr. Richard Kurin. These speakers highlighted needs and challenges and addressed the meaning of culture and identity amid war and humanitarian crisis. They also discussed the role of cultural diplomacy and current international efforts to assist in the protection of Ukraine’s cultural heritage.

“This is a heritage war,” said Ihor Poshyvailo. “It is a war against our memory, against our identity and culture, and of course against our future.”  In describing the various forms of destruction of Ukraine’s cultural heritage, Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta noted that those who work in the cultural field also face personal danger because they “are the force that opposes the idea of eliminating Ukraine” and “promotes Ukraine as being a separate entity with separate political agency” from Russia.  Dr. Kurin outlined work of the Smithsonian has been doing to support efforts including sending supplies and partnerships to use satellite imagery to track destruction of cultural heritage as well as American and international efforts to support evacuation of cultural artifacts and provide training in protecting and preserving cultural heritage.  Highlighting that erasure of Ukraine’s culture is an aim of this war, Dr. Kurin emphasized that “culture is a source of resilience and hope – expression of culture gives people strength.  Culture is what gives people a sense of who they are, and that’s what people are fighting for.”  

View the full event recording on the National Museum of American Diplomacy’s website, here: A Dialogue with Ukrainian Museum Leaders on Defending and Preserving Culture and Identity in a Time of War - National Museum of American Diplomacy (state.gov)    

It was an honor to join @NMADmuseum today for a discussion with Ukrainian museum directors about the importance of preserving Ukraine’s cultural heritage. I was inspired by the directors’ commitment to their work, and the bravery they show in doing it.#UnitedWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/TF70bTGkvx

— Lee Satterfield (@ECA_AS) April 28, 2022

The State Department leads the United States’ work  to preserve and protect historically significant places, objects, and traditions with international partners around the world, including Ukraine. Learn more about these efforts through the Cultural Heritage Center website: Cultural Heritage Center | Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (state.gov)

chc_main_photo.jpg

In-person attendees at CHCC meeting on April 12, 2022. This was the committee’s first hybrid meeting.

Committee members reviewed the findings of the Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab (CHML), which is documenting how Russia’s war is affecting Ukraine’s cultural heritage, with the support of the Department of State and the Smithsonian Institution.  Using satellite imagery and other technical expertise, the CHML is documenting Ukraine’s tens of thousands of cultural heritage sites and monitoring their status during Russia’s brutal assault. This work is an important contribution to fully assessing the condition of Ukraine’s cultural heritage and demanding accountability for actions to harm or destroy that heritage.  Committee members discussed additional resources and technologies they could offer to improve the accuracy and efficiency of CHML’s findings.  CHML’s most recent report is publicly available.

Turning to domestic law enforcement, the Committee also discussed the ongoing positive results of the Cultural Property Experts on Call Program. Through a partnership between the State Department and the University of Pennsylvania, the program connects U.S. law enforcement officials with experts in archaeology and art history to facilitate the identification of cultural property in the course of law enforcement investigations.  Since the program’s founding in 2020, the on-call experts have accurately identified 98% of objects referred to them by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.  Since 2007, HSI has repatriated more than 15,000 objects to over 40 countries and institutions and the FBI Art Crime Team has recovered more than 15,000 items valued at over $800 million.

The U.S. Department of State established the Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee in 2016 to coordinate U.S. government efforts to protect and preserve cultural property internationally when it is at risk from political instability, armed conflict, or natural or other disasters.

By Allie Dalola

tage_rita_kolkata3.jpg Tage Rita, AWE alumna and owner of Naara Aaaba winery in Northeast India. (Photo: Avijit Bhattacharya)

[Kolkata, April 2022] – Tage Rita, an alumna of the U.S. State Department’s Academy for Women’s Entrepreneurs program, is using her business to help restore prosperity to a remote area of India known for its fruit – one bottle at a time. 

Rita is from the Ziro Valley in India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, a region with a rich agricultural history known for producing organic kiwi fruit. Like her neighbors, Rita’s family support themselves off of the abundance of the fertile land.  However, the lack of connectivity between this rural region and the outside world makes transporting produce to markets across India nearly impossible.  Because of this, farms have become less and less lucrative, and thousands of kiwi fruit have gone to waste. 

Rita wanted to turn this trend around.  “I saw so much abundance and productivity with fruit and other agricultural products, but there was no market linkage,” Rita explains.  “So farmers could not benefit. I saw the same story repeated for more than 30 years.”

img20201210143138.jpeg Tage Rita (right) inspects a pile of fruit on her kiwi farm.

Leaning into her training as an agricultural engineer, Rita developed a method to utilize overripe kiwi and make it into something new: wine!  By fermenting the fruit, it can then be bottled, transported, and sold across India.  The process reduces crop waste and is economically efficient. 

“I'm so happy to see this,” Rita says.  “Even the smallest of the fruit can be used in a winery.”

_dsc2280.jpeg An award-winning glass of Naara Aaaba’s kiwi wine.

Rita describes the “excitement and fire inside her” when she launched her business Naara Aaba, but she quickly realized her lack of business training held her back, particularly in the area of financial literacy.  So she applied for the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs program (AWE), a business-training initiative run by the U.S. government.  She says the three-month AWE training was invaluable for equipping her with practical knowledge in finance and product pricing structures.

 “I needed so much professional help, support, and mentoring,” Rita explains.  “I was eager to learn and am so grateful for this program.”

_dsc2270.jpeg Tage Rita tests the quality of her wine made from kiwi fruits.

AWE also strengthened her marketing skills, which helped her turn Naara Aaba into a profitable business with growing popularity.  As the company grows, it creates jobs that deeply impact the community.  Naara Aaba buys from local producers, which supports more than 300 farmers and their families.  The company also employs women and at-risk youth, providing them training and employment opportunities as an alternative to working in garment factories.

Her success revitalizing the economy and empowering locals in Ziro Valley earned her national attention.  In 2022, Rita was one of just 30 women to be selected for the Nari Shakti Puraskar Award for women working as catalysts of positive change in society, an award she received from India’s President Ram Nath Kovind as part of the country’s March 8 Women’s Day celebrations - no small feat in a country of 1.4 billion people.  Rita was recognized for her outstanding work in supporting women’s entrepreneurship and promoting local Indian-made products on international markets. 

“I never imagined that I would receive recognition from the president of India,” says Rita.

womens_day_2022_.png Tage Rita receives the Nari Shakti Puraskar Award celebrating the outstanding contributions of women to society from India’s President Ram Nath Kovind on March 8, 2022.

In the coming years, Rita expects to expand Naara Aaba both nationally and internationally.  She hopes to use the company as the starting point for developing wine-based tourism, to bring more people into the lush Ziro Valley.  With her training from AWE and her determination to succeed, Rita is excited for the future of her business and constantly encourages other female entrepreneurs to follow their dreams.  

“If you have an idea and you want to do something on your own, you should not restrict yourself,” she says.  “You have to come out of your comfort zone.”

Since 2019, the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs has empowered more than 16,000 women in 80 countries with the knowledge, networks, and access they need to launch and scale successful businesses.  AWE has operated in India since 2020, training nearly 600 women entrepreneurs who, like Tage Rita, are growing their businesses in ways that benefit entire communities.