Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Office of Citizen Exchanges

Sub-Saharan African Business Women's Training

The Great Lakes Consortium has been selected as one of the top three recipients of a grant to support an exchange program "Women as Economic Partners in Nation Building" by the United States State Department. The program is designed to boost the capacities of women entrepreneurs in Botswana and Zambia, and to create a foundation for networking and cooperation among African women entrepreneurs and their counterparts in Northwest Ohio.The In-Bound component of the exchange program will be organized during the summer or fall of 2000 by the Consortium in cooperation with members of Northwest Ohio African-American community, led by Virginia Haywood-Smith. The eighteen-day individualized training program will offer five African women the opportunity to interact with American businesswomen and to take part in round-table discussions and site visits at women-owned businesses. They will also participate in existing networking programs, shadowing our community members throughout the exchange project. Besides Toledo, the guests will also visit smaller cities and rural communities of Northwest Ohio.During the eighteen-day Out-Bound program the US team of three, led by Christine Weisfelder, will visit both Botswana and Zambia in July-August 2000. They will organize workshops and participate in other activities in both urban and rural areas of the two countries.

The exchange program developed by the Great Lakes Consortium has been awarded a grant by the Office of Citizens Exchanges in the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs of the US State Department (formerly USIA) in 2000.

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