“It’s My Duty”
“I wanted to make a brand new start in my place of birth,” she said, “to bring my experience to the textile market here.”
In Kosovo, as in other parts of the Balkans, unemployment rates remain stubbornly high, especially for the youth. Two out of three young Kosovans of working age do not have a job.
We’re helping to change these statistics, providing hope and opportunities for the future. Working in conjunction with our partners, UNDP’s Self-Employment Program helps support skilled young entrepreneurs like Mirjeta with start-up grants and mentoring services as they launch their businesses.
Mirjeta’s brand “MH” is already receiving orders and has hired employees. She doesn’t regret her decision to return home and she’s now a leading example for other young Kosovans. “As an educated woman,” she explained, “it is my duty to do so.”
“I Didn’t Know How to Get Her Back”
Fatima was at her wit’s end after her ex-husband kidnapped her oldest daughter.
“I repudiated him,” she said but found the legal process frustratingly complex. “I didn’t know how to get her [back], and I didn’t know who to ask.”
Egypt’s family courts are notorious for their labyrinthine procedures, making this part of the legal system difficult for many poor and illiterate people in Egypt to navigate.
Thanks to UNDP, Fatima found her way. Our partnership with the Egyptian government has created 32 Legal Aid Offices across the country, which provide free advice and services to empower marginalized, vulnerable groups in their search for justice.
Our staff do much more: they train other staff, hold roundtables for family court judges, and assist with digitizing and automating records. Thus far, we’ve helped more than 50,000 Egyptians like Fatima navigate the family courts.
“The Legal Assistant office told me what to do,” she said. While still working hard to get her daughter back, with the help of UNDP, Fatima remains hopeful. “Now I am following the procedures.”
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“It Safeguards Our Identity”
Contrary to what one might think, ecotourism camps run by the Pemón people in Venezuela’s Kamarat Valley are preserving, not eroding, their unique culture and way of life.
For Victorino, president of the camp at Uruyén, “tourism helps the community [with jobs and income], and it also safeguards our identity as an indigenous community.”
Begun in 1984, these sites offer visitors a sample of everyday Pemón life, landscapes, food, ways of living, and culture. But more importantly, they’re a crucial pathway for Pemón survival, transcribing their reliance on agriculture and fishing into modern, sustainable practices and livelihoods.
Ecotourism is a vital lifeline, enabled by support from UNDP, which has helped the Pemón improve the camps’ physical infrastructure and agricultural activities.
“With the improvement of these services, the entire community has benefited,” Victorino said of these vital lifelines, which help some 6,000 Pemón. “Thanks to the support we have received, a lot has changed. We are reclaiming our land with these resources.”
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“It’s About Becoming Something”
Hurricane Matthew’s winds whipped through Ana Celeste’s house as the storm pummeled southwest Haiti in October. “It shook us so hard,” she said, “it took everything.”
Months later, more than one million Haitians are still struggling to recover. The storm’s impact damaged or destroyed over 120,000 houses, and wiped out 80-100% of the region’s harvest.
In Haiti, UNDP’s cash for work program, Soley Leve, is helping people rebuild their livelihoods. In exchange for performing critical recovery work, like clearing clogged canals or fixing broken sanitation systems, we put income into the pockets of Haitians. The wages are used to buy food, send children back to school, fix houses, and more. Importantly, Soley Leve also fosters community, one that builds its future together.
“It’s about becoming something,” said Ana Celeste. “It’s about something sustainable, a future for my children.”
We aim to create 1.5 million working days for roughly 150,000 Haitians, empowering them to rebuild their communities, earn a livelihood, and regain their dignity.
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“I’ve Benefited from Beekeeping”
“I’m famous with the bees,” said Victoria. Known to most as Mama Beehive, this industrious mother of seven is inspiring others in Uganda.
Victoria and her family live in the country’s mountainous eastern region, where the impacts of climate change are jeopardizing traditional agriculture-based sources of income. Rising temperatures hinder crop production, more intense rainfall produces increased landslides and flooding, and deforestation and loss of vegetation combined with extreme rainfall are eroding the topsoil. As a result, food security has deteriorated and farmers’ livelihoods are endangered.
Thanks to our programs promoting sustainable agro-forestry activities and providing vocational training, many Ugandans have diversified their work. Beekeeping, which relies on nature to produce honey to sell, is one such activity and has become a lifeline for many, including Mama Beehive.
“I have benefitted from beekeeping,” she said. With the profits from her honey sales, Victoria can pay for her children’s school fees and uniforms. It’s an investment in their economic – and environmental – future.
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