Women face many barriers on the way to starting a business, from lack of financial resources to lack of certainty in the success of the business. The barriers often discourage them from developing a business idea. To support startups in Moldova and Ukraine, Yep! Moldova and UN Women launched the Ellevator program. The participating women received technical and financial support to develop their businesses, IPN reports.
Viorica Cerbușca, founder of Yep! Moldova, in a conference centering on the program said that the vision of Yep! Moldova is to raise a new generation of entrepreneurs who are not afraid to innovate, take risks and grow quickly.
Attending the event, U.S. Ambassador to Moldova Kent D. Logsdon said that the product of women’s leadership is evident in Moldova. The women are in business, politics and have grown a lot in recent years. The U.S. in recent years supported several programs to help women grow. USAID provided technical and financial assistance to remove barriers faced by women in the economy. USAID will also open a hub in April within ASEM, being the first to promote female entrepreneurship and support companies run by women and employing women.
Dominika Stojanoska, UN Women Moldova Country Representative, said that several business ideas materialized into products within the project. Gender discrimination needs to be eliminated in order to achieve economic development. Women face many challenges before starting a business and when continuing it and, for things to work, barriers must be removed.
Elaine Marshall, North Carolina Secretary of State, believes that the path of women in entrepreneurship requires a lot of courage and persistence and only these can make things go well. In North Carolina in 2021, 22% of women had responsibility for children or elderly people in addition to their basic jobs, while in the case of men only 1.5% had this responsibility. Businesses must develop and this is crucial for the economy. The women should never be afraid of failure and only move forward.
Olesea Plăcintă, the mother of four and entrepreneur who runs an animal farm in Ungheni, said that in Yep! Moldova program she grew a lot and, if initially, she was skeptical about achieving success, now she is grateful. Since 2015, she has been developing an organic milk baby food business. Since 2022, she has attracted half a million lei in investments for the business.
Mastac Marcela, co-founder of a toy manufacturing company, told that she produces eco-friendly wooden toys with the idea of passing on toys from generation to generation. She saw the announcement about participation in the program on social media and applied. The offered support allowed her to purchase new equipment. Consequently, her sales and the community of those who buy eco-friendly toys have grown.
The conference dedicated to female entrepreneurship was organized by Yep! Moldova and UN Women with the financial support of Sweden and the Women’s Fund for Peace and Humanitarian Assistance. The program “Ellevator. Level up Women Accelerator” is designed for women-led businesses that participated in previous pre-acceleration programs. The program aims to elevate women-led businesses in Moldova and Ukraine to a new level of development, including through expansion into foreign markets. Within the program, at least ten businesses benefited from vouchers to purchase equipment and/or development services to the value of up to 60,000 lei.
