контент

ячаиявтяваива

Grants for micro and small businesses

HERA award grants to women entrepreneurs in Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. These awards support women-owned ventures to scale up and create employment for young women at risk of dangerous migration. With the grant, the entrepreneurs may choose essential capital to grow your ventures. Applications are now open and can be accessed in our resources.

HERA volunteer teams assess all top ranked ventures on site

Applicants for this year’s Competition should fill in the 2024 application (see “Resources” on this site) outlining your products/services, customers and market, employment, turnover, growth plans and equipment needed. You may have your proposals pre-vetted by our local organizers and partners (contact hera.grants@gmail.com for information about who they are in your region).

Start ups or concepts without a demonstrated market should not apply until the venture has sales and customers. “Social enterprises” training young women for employment or to launch a business are also considered.

This year additional funding is available for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) ventures. An international HERA team of judges will assess all applications. In August and September, the HERA Teams will visit the top ranked ventures on site. We will also visit our 2022 and 2023 grantees to see how you are faring.

Lilith, 21 years of age and the eldest of four children, studied law at Yerevan State University but returned home to develop the family farm.

Her family owns two, six hectare plots. One is used for grazing of sheep and the second, has aging walnut and fig trees. The properties are 500 meters from the Azeri border, where there is frequent shelling and military incursions.

This spring, Lilith added raspberries, blackberries and hazelnut crops to the farm. Her family also sells fresh figs and walnuts to a trader. Lilith’s aim is to conserve the figs so as to sell them during winter when they are scarce on the market and will bring a higher price. With increasingly hot summers in Armenia, Lilith needed air conditioning to ensure the storage room works effectively. The HERA team met Lilith in Yerevan, where she chose the air conditioner to preserve the fruit.

With her husband, Dmitri, Lali rebuilt and furbished “Hippie Bus”, which they use to travel to art festivals throughout Georgia to sell the handicrafts produced by Lali’s venture. Lali also shares a small shop with another seller.

Two art students work for her in the evenings and she hires additional students during exhibitions. Her team produces and sells backpacks, jewellery, cosmetic bags, passport covers, and sculptures. They also decorate cloth bags purchased from a local factory to package their products.

With Dmitri, Lali is rebuilding a larger bus as “Hippie Bus” lacks enough room to serve as a shop. Lali also wants to sell food from the bus during tours. The couple’s aim is to refurbish the large bus that they purchased for €594. They estimate that this “new” one will require €1373 to repair and have already invested €914. The HERA team awarded Lali a grant of €700 towards refurbishing the new bus.

Maria’s Trommigou business produces wooden home decor, souvenirs, jewellery, and event decor.

Her showroom and factory are co-located, with B2B (business-to-business), her most successful operation. For B2B they provide eco-office stationery holders, folders, cardholders, wine menus etc. They sell B2C (business-to-consumer) to walk-in customers and at festivals, online to create awareness, and through word of mouth.

Trommigou averages 300 clients/month and in 2018, had over 5000 customers. Maria employs six women full-time. The youngest, who handles the orders and customers, is 20 years old while the eldest is Maria’s mother.

The HERA team helped Trommigou purchase a high-end laptop computer for accounting and design, with HERA providing €621, while Maria contributed €180.

Olga, originally from Donetsk in the conflict zone, started her water filter business in 2008. During the conflict, Olga and her husband fled to Kiev and established her water filter business again in 2016. She manages two stands in separate malls and currently employs four women.

Since the water in Kiev is not potable, filters are essential. In addition to selling water filters, Olga attracts clients who want to install an integrated water filter in their kitchens. Olga wants to employ a team of young women to respond to calls and register sales.She believes this part of the business would appeal to young women as it offers a flexible work setting and hours. With a laptop, paid for by HERA, she will be able to manage requests for water filter installations, make presentations to prospective clients and manage online promotions. She learned about HERA through one of last year’s grantees.