In 2016, Department of Foreign Affair and Trade (DFAT) funded a pilot program worth AUD$25,000 as part of their Women’s Economic Empowerment to provide training opportunities for five minority ethnic background girls to study at KOTO. These five girls are from the hill tribes and traveled to Hanoi for the first time to join class 30. They are now in the last stage of their training where they will move out of KOTO house and intern in restaurants/hotels outside of KOTO. They will graduate in November 2018.
Five minority ethnic girls from the pilot program
Following the success of that pilot, the Embassy has provided AUD$250,000 in funding towards a three-year program (called “Her Turn”) to further increase access to KOTO training for rural and ethnic minority women. We are working towards three phases of the projects:
WEE I: At least 30 women graduating with Australian post-secondary VET accreditation via KOTO 24 month program.
WEE II: At least 110 women completing vocational education and training in areas where there are skills shortages or market demand via KOTO 6-month training program for women from 18 to 25 years old.
WEE III: By the end of the project, at least 15% of alumni will own their own enterprises, and at least 30% of these enterprises will utilize the social enterprise model. This phase focuses on the KOTO Future Leader Program.
This is a matching fund project in which KOTO is working on our fundraising activities to contribute AUD$250,000 towards making this project a success. Her Turn promises to bring a bright future with sustainability, empowerment, and hope for the women of our society. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Australian Government for partnering with KOTO.
