PROVIDING ECONOMIC SECURITY FOR ISRAELI WOMEN
The Hadassah Foundation focuses on economic empowerment for low-income women in Israel because:
Studies show that women who achieve economic independence spend a greater percentage of household income on food, children's clothes, education, and health than do men.- Helping women means helping families.
- Israel is ranked second in the world as the country with the widest gap between rich and poor.
- A significant number of people living in poverty are women and children from minority communities – frequently new immigrants.
- Poverty rates in Israel continue to increase, based on data that the National Insurance Institute released in August 2006 for the year 2005. The poverty rate of households was 20.6%, of persons 24.7% and of children 35.2%.
- The government has dramatically reduced welfare benefits.
- The major obstacles that prevent women from becoming entrepreneurs are lack of access to financing at affordable rates and lack of appropriate training.
- Studies show that providing credit programs for women helps them achieve economic self-sufficiency.
- Women have proven to be good credit risks.
Sources: Myers-JDC Brookdale Institute; Annual Survey of the National Insurance Institute of Israel; Aspen Institute Self-Employment Learning Project (SELP); Women’s Empowerment and Micro-Finance Programs, research by Linda Mayoux; Consultive Group to Assist the Poor (World Bank) best practices papers.
