Women Leadership Empowerment and Advocacy Program

Learn about WE-LEAP

Project Title: Women Leadership Empowerment and Advocacy Program

Project Location: Matobo District, Matabeleland South

Donor: Implemented by HOCIC Zimbabwe, in partnership with Oxfam, with the generous support of the Embassy of Switzerland

Project Summary: Project aims to contribute to the improved social, economic, and participation in decision-making of women and girls in Zimbabwe. 

About the Project

The Women Leadership Empowerment and Advocacy Program, implemented by Hope for a Child in Christ (HOCIC), aims to contribute to the improved social, economic, and participation in decision-making of women and girls in Zimbabwe.

The intervention takes a holistic approach that prioritizes and addresses the economic needs of women, prevents violence against women and girls, and promotes women’s transformational leadership.

HOCIC uses the Self Help Group (SHG) Approach as a key strategy for contributing to Women’s Economic Empowerment, enabling women to save, access loans and financial services, strengthen livelihoods, access markets, develop leadership skills, and collectively address challenges affecting their wellbeing.

Key programme activities include SHG strengthening, financial literacy, Gender Action Learning System (GALS) sessions, livelihood strengthening, access to financial services, revolving funds, and the establishment and strengthening of Cluster-Level Associations (CLAs). Through these interventions, women are supported to realise their full economic potential in both their public and private lives and to contribute equally to, and benefit equally from, social, political, and economic development.

Why Matobo?

Matobo District sits within Zimbabwe’s agro-ecological regions IV & V — among the driest and most climate-vulnerable in the country. Recurrent drought, currency volatility and thin rural labour markets have long pushed young people toward migration and left women locked out of economic decision-making.
WE-LEAP (the Women Empowerment and Leadership Programme) meets that reality directly: it is implemented by HOCIC Zimbabwe in partnership with Oxfam, with generous funding from the Embassy of Switzerland, working ward by ward across Matobo District.

How WE-LEAP Works

  1. Vocational Skills Training — Young women train in trades such as catering and clothing & textile design at Phangani Vocational Training Centre.
  2. Start-up Kits & Productive Assets — Graduates receive practical tools that turn a certificate into a working enterprise from day one.
  3. Self-Help Groups & Revolving Funds — Women save together, lend to one another, and access catalytic revolving-fund capital.
  4. GALS & GBV Prevention Training — Builds confidence and household negotiation skills, helping couples share financial decisions.