We are proud to share our annual report, which demonstrates WONDER’s commitment to our partners and the accomplishments of the women and girls we support, even amongst the obstacles created by the COVID pandemic.
In the last year, we have reached more women than ever before. We are so grateful for all of you who have supported our work, particularly in a year that has been both financially and emotionally challenging for us all.
From 2020 to 2021, we worked with 27 partners in 18 different countries across the globe. We empowered 20,097 women and girls through quality education, up by 78 percent from our previous year. Of that number, 14,087 women and their families received support specific to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We empowered 20,097 women and girls through quality education, up by 78 percent from our previous year.
Our partners and the women they work with faced serious obstacles due to the pandemic. Many students depleted what they had saved for their education when they or their family members lost work; they often did not have the resources to engage with online learning, including a lack of computers, cell phones, and/or internet connection; and once able to meet in person again, our partner organisations faced additional operational costs, for example spending on sanitization to ensure students were safe.
WONDER’s work during COVID-19
Despite these challenges, WONDER and our partners persevered.
For example, our partner Kumbel in Kazakhstan began upskilling local teachers in 2020. When the pandemic made it impossible to attend in-person training, Kumbel moved the programme online. This made it possible for teachers across Kazakhstan to enrol for the first time.
In the Philippines, our partner FPTI has a strong reputation for preparing young women to enter the country’s hospitality and tourism industry. While the pandemic seriously damaged these industries, the FPTI team worked hard to identify new training and graduate opportunities in businesses that were thriving during COVID-19. As a result, employment rates of FPTI graduates have fallen only slightly compared to the industry as a whole.
Meanwhile in the UK, the push to online events meant we used the pandemic as an opportunity to engage with more webinars and online learning opportunities. With our #FutureofWork series, we have been able to bring our partners’ voices, experiences and expertise directly to our supporters and others interested in our work in a way we had not done before.
The partners we work with and the students we support have been resilient and continue to work hard to find new ways to succeed. The COVID-19 pandemic has had and will continue to have profound effects on women and girls’ access to education, their ability to find safe, stable employment, and their ability to support themselves and their families. This makes the work we do at WONDER to empower women and girls, and give them the resources to exit poverty for good, even more significant.
We could not have achieved so much in such an unusual year without our supporters, like you. This annual report demonstrates WONDER’s commitment to our local partners and the women and girls we support.
To download our annual report for the year 2020-21, please click here.
