By Karma Palden

The domestic helpers’ training course, which will be organised by the Bhutan Association of Women Entrepreneurs (BAOWE) at the end of February in Thimphu, is getting good public response with many interested candidates registering for the course.

The course will initially take in about 50 trainees above the age of 18 years. The focus will be on women and girls but the organizers are also encouraging men and boys to participate as well.

The first of its kind in the country, the main aim of the course is to make domestic helpers professional and to change people’s mentality of stigmatizing and downgrading people who do domestic chores.

The selected candidates will be taught management of household laundry and kitchen equipment, and food and beverage management, which include preparation of simple meals and basic bakery course. They will also be taught how to take care of children and elderly people.

“Our job is to look out for opportunities and resources to create employment prospects which will help address the unemployment problem in our country,” said Aum Damchae Dem, president of BAOWE.

According to her, the project will help prevent women and girls from engaging in professions that often leave them vulnerable and susceptible.

After the completion of the course, the trainees with the help of BAOWE, will be attached to homes in and around Thimphu. The trainees will be graded by their employees. This will serve as a pilot project enabling the trainees to become trainers of similar enterprises in their respective dzongkhags. The project also aspires to address the domestic maid problem in the country.

In future, BAOWE will also try to explore opportunities abroad if the project proves successful.

The project is the result of an agreement signed between BAOWE and the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource (MoLHR) in 2010. The project is funded by MoLHR.

BAOWE is a non-government and non-profit organization registered under the CSO Act 2007 of Bhutan. It was established by a group of women entrepreneurs to bring all Bhutanese businesswomen onto a common platform to nurture, facilitate, empower and promote women’s knowledge and skills for business.

Where DO WE GO

BAOWE Programmes

The Secretariat is organized along four broad programmes  or themes to begin with which will be altered as BAOWE grows:

1. Development of women-run and women owned Cluster Cooperatives
2. Micro Finance Programme
3. Research, Branding, packaging and marketing of women’s products.
4. Women’s Niche enterprises

Other related engagements of BAOWE :

To further the aims and objectives of the organisation, among other things BAOWE will also engage in following types of activities:

• To borrow or raise funds required for the purpose of the Association on such terms and conditions as may be determined.
• To invest the unutilized funds of the Association in investments, securities or property as may be determined.
• To support any charitable organisation or purpose that would further meet the social objectives of the Association and its members;
• To encourage and facilitate social activities, which will promote understanding   and goodwill among all stakeholders, like-minded organisations in Bhutan and beyond. To promote friendly relations and pursue active collaboration with relevant organisations in Bhutan and abroad.

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From the onset, BAOWE’s Board is clear about the organisation’s strategic direction in not promoting ‘business as usual’ in the move towards empowering and encouraging Bhutanese women entrepreneurs to participate and contribute to Bhutan’s economic development.

• Social business, social entrepreneurship and GNH at the core of BAOWE’s business development strategy

Given Bhutan’s Buddhist environment and values, people’s compassion towards the less privileged than themselves, and the nation’s focused drive to incorporate GNH as the central theme in everything we do, BAOWE’s concept of promoting social enterprises provides an appropriate framework to bring all these elements together. What BAOWE intends to implement is very similar to that of the model of social business being proposed by International Nobel Peace Laureate and founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh – Prof. Dr. Muhammad Yunus who has postulated a new world of business in which profit-maximizing-enterprises and social-benefit-maximizing enterprises can coexist.
In the businesses that BAOWE promotes and facilitates innovation and creativity will be rewarded and GNH must be at the core of the business, not GNH along the way!

• BAOWE’s cluster cooperative development strategy for collective community participation and ownership led by women

Mobilising communities to bring hitherto undiscovered and unimaginable markets to the invisible small and micro women entrepreneurs without women having to reach out and migrate to urban areas in search of markets and opportunities. BAOWE’s cluster cooperatives will be social enterprises developed, owned and run by collectives in the community which will further cultivate GNH at the grassroots level spearheaded by women entrepreneurs.

• BAOWE’s strategy to help rural women appreciate and build on their unique and comparative advantages

BAOWE will strategise, unveil, nurture and support Bhutanese women to build on their existing strengths, unique characteristics and comparative advantages which they enjoy and take it to new heights to stimulate economic development in rural areas of Bhutan. Eg.the traditional, customary property rights or land titles that rural Bhutanese women have as a given and the ‘favored girl child’ status.

• Business and Professional women working together

BAOWE will advocate for a strong partnership between working, professional women in civil, corporate sectors and women entrepreneurs in Bhutan’s private sector for the two groups to join hands to work for the empowerment of all Bhutanese women especially to enhance and raise the level of women entrepreneurs and make them more active and ‘visible’ actors in the economy.

• Help combat rural-urban migration

Due to rapid urbanisation, today the rural landscape is largely spotted and dominated by women with a higher rate of male out-migration for employment and education. Owing to limited economic and employment opportunities in rural areas, girls and women show signs of attraction to urban areas too. However, due to their minimal or no education and lack of skills, young girls and women land up in exploitative situations and engaged in unsafe, unhealthy and low-paying jobs. Less women will opt to migrate to urban areas once livelihood opportunities are at their rural door step through BAOWE’s interventions. BAOWE will actively intervene, raise awareness, facilitate and support to help women recognize their self worth and discover their strengths to lead more meaningful and dignified lives.

throughout all levels of economic activity is essential to:

• Build a strong economy in Bhutan
• Establish a more stable and just society in Bhutan with viable and inclusive approaches
• Achieve internationally agreed national goals for development, sustainability and human rights eg. MDGs, CEDAW/CRC
• Improve quality of life for Bhutanese women, men, families and communities in general, and
• Orient and propel business’ operations and goals from a GNH angle given the acclaimed central role of women in Bhutanese society and Bhutan’s national vision which must be translated into action.

Hence, informed and inspired by real-life business practices and experiences, BAOWE will promote and nurture women’s empowerment through entrepreneurship whilst helping tailor existing policies, programmes and strategies to realize women’s empowerment. BAOWE has been inspired also by the seven principles of women’s empowerment (see Box) developed by UNIFEM and UN Global Compact which is the largest corporate citizenship initiative with more than 7,000 business participants and stakeholders involved in over 135 countries.

Who initiated BAOWE ?

Inspired and conceptualized by the Founding President Ms. Damchae Dem (Executive Chairperson of Pelden Group of Companies, and Chairperson of SCWEC – the SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneurs Council), the BAOWE Board and Secretariat was pulled together by a group of like-minded successful Bhutanese women entrepreneurs and professionals who shared the President’s passion, mission and purpose in life…..to benefit the less privileged women (and men) and help them empower themselves to lead productive and meaningful lives.

The group of women shared a common need to contribute to society and saw a role through BAOWE to join the Royal government in translating GNH into action in the business world of the private sector and prove that it is possible to profitably do business with GNH

• Why become a BAOWE member?

BAOWE aims to be Bhutan’s premier networking organizations for women entrepreneurs, bringing women and female professionals from a broad range of markets, disciplines and perspectives together to complement, materialize and conduct social business or business anchored in GNH values!

BAOWE will work tirelessly to offer opportunities to build your contact base, share resources, acquire referrals, and develop skills and knowledge that will help your business grow from strength to strength.

BAOWE’s unique relationship-building approach and welcoming attitude will make it easy to build real, long-term business relationships for women entrepreneurs within Bhutan and beyond.

BAOWE will help you see the benefits of social entrepreneurship and social business.

BAOWE will offer numerous opportunities to network, build capacity and connect with other professional women and like-minded organizations.Whatever your plans, BAOWE will enable you to develop and grow,  not only your business, but also yourself as a human being to lead a meaningful and fulfilling life whilst in the business of conducting profitable and viable enterprises.

Come and explore the benefits of being a BAOWE member

• How to become a BAOWE member?

Please send us your Name, Designation, Address, Organization, Activities and Contact Details. We shall get in touch with you soon with more Membership details.

Enquiries can be sent to :

Ms. Phuntshok Choden (Board’s Member Secretary)
Secretary General
BAOWE Head Office
Lanjuphakha, P.O.Box 903
Thimphu Bhutan
Phone : +975-17111094
Email : baowe.bhutan@gmail.com; baowe@druknet.bt
Website : www.baowe.org

BAOWE will create a vibrant business environment for women, involving a broad partnership of actors, enablers, contributors and innovators to open opportunities for women and men with a special focus on the poor, disadvantaged, disabled and marginalized.

BAOWE will enable the active and interactive participation of the government, international and national financial institutions, the private sector, investors, NGOs, academia and professional organizations to work together to develop, promote and nurture gender equitable social business for sustainable growth in Bhutan.

BAOWE will intensify its efforts to facilitate the growth of women entrepreneurs in all scales and types of business, after all Equality means business too. It will be an enabling platform for ‘invisible’ women entrepreneurs to discover their strengths and potential to thrive in a competitive business environment by doing things differently, successfully and profitably.

Why BAOWE?

BAOWE Board’s conviction that empowering women to participate fully in economic life across all sectors and

throughout all levels of economic activity is essential to:

• Build a strong economy in Bhutan
• Establish a more stable and just society in Bhutan with viable and inclusive approaches
• Achieve internationally agreed national goals for development, sustainability and human rights eg. MDGs, CEDAW/CRC
• Improve quality of life for Bhutanese women, men, families and communities in general, and
• Orient and propel business’ operations and goals from a GNH angle given the acclaimed central role of women in Bhutanese society and Bhutan’s national vision which must be translated into action.

Hence, informed and inspired by real-life business practices and experiences, BAOWE will promote and nurture women’s empowerment through entrepreneurship whilst helping tailor existing policies, programmes and strategies to realize women’s empowerment. BAOWE has been inspired also by the seven principles of women’s empowerment (see Box) developed by UNIFEM and UN Global Compact which is the largest corporate citizenship initiative with more than 7,000 business participants and stakeholders involved in over 135 countries.

Who initiated BAOWE ?

Inspired and conceptualized by the Founding President Ms. Damchae Dem (Executive Chairperson of Pelden Group of Companies, and Chairperson of SCWEC – the SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneurs Council), the BAOWE Board and Secretariat was pulled together by a group of like-minded successful Bhutanese women entrepreneurs and professionals who shared the President’s passion, mission and purpose in life…..to benefit the less privileged women (and men) and help them empower themselves to lead productive and meaningful lives.

The group of women shared a common need to contribute to society and saw a role through BAOWE to join the Royal government in translating GNH into action in the business world of the private sector and prove that it is possible to profitably do business with GNH