QNET & KEDV STRENGTHEN THE FINANCIAL SKILLS OF LOW-INCOME WOMEN THROUGH
FINANCIAL LITERACY TRAINING
QNET’s financial literacy programme empowers women to become financial knowledge experts in different provinces.
Istanbul, Turkey, March 13, 2023 – QNET, which carries out activities to strengthen entrepreneurs in more than 100 countries worldwide, is proud to partner with the Foundation for the Support of Women’s Work in Turkey (KEDV) for its FinGreen financial literacy programme in multiple provinces across Turkey.
Through the partnership, QNET supported increasing financial literacy and training for women from low-income communities. To date, FinGreen has successfully trained 124 women from Istanbul, Gaziantep, Mardin, Ankara, Izmir and Şanlıurfa.
Chief Executive Officer of QNET, Malou Caluza, says, “One of QNET’s goals is to produce sustainable outcomes for the communities we operate in, whether that be through our products, business, or people. That’s why we strive to align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SGDs) through everything we do.
The FinGreen programme is aligned with UN SDG 4 (Quality Education for all) and SDG 5 (Gender Equality). We believe that women’s equality is vital to increasing sustainable economic growth in developing countries. Giving women greater economic empowerment benefits their households, their local communities, and drives economic and social growth in countries.
Through FinGreen, QNET aims to demonstrate our commitment to promoting women’s economic empowerment, and to give women from underserved communities the ability make smart choices related to their finances.”
Women are more likely to perform unpaid labour, as they are typically the homemakers and caretakers, compared to men. Their work is often unacknowledged, and as many women spend most of their time taking care of their families and communities, they do not get the opportunity to develop their financial knowledge and understand the need to access banking services.
Irmak Sütçü, Marketing and Communications Manager of QNET said, “We are proud to partner with KEDV to enable women to create a more stable and safe socio-economic environment for themselves and their families, especially in communities outside of the main cities. We support women to develop their economic planning skills for their basic needs such as health, food and shelter. We also had many discussions on the value of women’s invisible labor in the economy, and helped them understand how best to manage their finances so that they can become more independent.
“The greatest impact of education begins when women realise that the term ‘economy’ is not daunting or complex. We created a training programmed that conveyed financial terms in very simple words, using concepts from their daily lives. Most of the participants were unfamiliar with financial terms, but by the end of the training, they gained an awareness that they can start saving for themselves from home, and that they can do this with the joint participation of all members of the house while arranging their household budgets.
At the same time, current agendas such as the economic crisis, inflation and cost of living were important items we covered in our training.” Sütçü adds.
Sütçü stated that they will continue to develop their financial literacy skills to strengthen women’s social roles on the occasion of March 8th, International Women’s Day.
Didem Demircan, Founder and Member of the Board of KEDV, says, “Economic literacy is a basic need, especially for women, due to the low-income and their role in both the family and society.With this training, participants realize their position in the economy, how big and important part of the economy they are, and their power.”
Gülşah İncere, who attended FinGreen financial literacy training, stated that women have always existed in the economy and said: “As women, we are part of the economy.
We have always played a part in supporting our families and communities behind the scenes. Through FinGreen, I now understand how crucial financial literacy is, and I’m proud to become a knowledge expert than can pass what I learnt to my relatives and friends.”
At the end of the program, women whom participated to the training stated:
- They realised the scale of invisible labor actually they contribute to the economy
- That managing finances is crucial to their personal development and growth
- They now understand the importance of calculating income and expenses
