Continuing Education

The Women's Group has taken a number of courses to enrich their lives and expand their professional possibilities. The National Learning Institute (INA) has facilitated six different professional courses for the Women's Group. The completed courses are the following:

• Micro-Enterprise Management
• Organic Fertilizers and Pesticides
• T-shirt printing
• Breadmaking
• Food Preparation
• Tree Nursery Reforestation

The Women's Group plans on putting this knowledge to work in its own business venture. The group has not decided on a business idea, but they are debating certain ideas that spring directly from the courses they have taken, like starting a bakery or making organic fertilizers, as well as other ideas that they have thought of independently, such as a raising cattle or growing noni for export. With the inherent difficulty in running a business in a remote small town, the Santa Fe Women's Group will proceed with caution, but the training that they have received from the National Learning Institute has given them the know-how and the confidence to compete in whatever market they decide to enter.

See how the Santa Fe Women's Group achieved energy indpendence with its biogas project

Although the Women's Group has already learned a lot and is ready to work, the women are determined to take more courses and tweak their business plan until they are comfortable to forge ahead. Similarly, at any point in their educational or enterprising efforts, they will be open to new ideas as they come up, both from inside and outside the group.

With that said, the women are currently running a tree nursery business, facilitated by the Tree Nursery Reforestation course offered by INA. To learn more about the group's tree nursery and how it will impact local reforestation efforts, checkout the tree nursery page.

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