Women's Centers International

Susan Burgess-Lent is Founder and Executive Director of Women’s Centers International (WCI), a non-profit devoted to enabling the aspirations of women affected by conflict and poverty. She left her award-winning twenty-year career in television news to help find solutions in the field of International relief and development. Her experience ranges from the American Red Cross International Services in Washington, DC to locally led organizations in East Africa.

During her missions in Darfur, Sudan, she developed a Model for assisting women displaced by the genocide. That Model became the foundation of Women’s Centers in Nairobi, Kenya and Oakland, California, assisting women across the spectrum of their needs. Her vision is a global network of Women’s Centers.

She is a writer / blogger, author of two books, and a speaker about women’s path to parity and power. She lives and works in Oakland, California.

Women and their children are the most adversely affected by the entwined realities of conflict and poverty.  Women can take no substantive role in mitigating conflict or rising from poverty if they are chronically denied access to resources that enable recovery and growth. Their needs for dignified livelihoods, education, health information and care, and protection from sexual violence are interrelated.

The Women’s Center model innovates in reversing poverty by delivering integrated tools to answer those  basic life needs. A Center fosters women’s authority and agency as the best authority on what fits, and follows best practices across the spectrum of women’s needs..

Women’s Centers are safe ‘base camps’ for recovering those long-excluded from society’s wealth. With their talents fully deployed, women are the best change agents of any community. Our world will continue to degrade until we bring online the unique tempering power and talents of previously invisible women.

Globally, more than 750,000,00 women live in extreme poverty and/or are displaced from their homes. Between 35% and 70% are subject to physical, psychological, and sexual violence (UnWomen) they lose children at an alarming rate (OurWoldData) to treatable diseases; they have limited access to credit (g20insights) or sustaining livelihoods, and for at least 130 million girls (UNESCO) formal schooling ends to support family or bear a child. The effect on individuals is to consign them to invisibility. The  effect on society has been to sideline the desperately needed female aptitude for promoting peace and prosperity.

These systemic barriers, reinforced over two millennia, mean the full power of women has not been evoked and supported in any society. Access to knowledge, support, and practical tools changes that dynamic.

WCI’s work is best characterized not as problem-solving but as an enabling response to women's aspirations.  In this critical effort to restore gender balance, women acquire both the opportunity and the tools to recover their strength and discover their gifts. 

A Women’s Center is a welcoming environment where women can gather, be safe, heal, grow, and unite.  Rather than each woman tracking down the resources she needs, a Center brings resources to her across the full spectrum of her needs including education, livelihood, health, and protection from violence.

Women served by a Center are not beneficiaries but members, a term that promotes agency and ownership.

The initial experience of membership emphasizes healing from trauma. Each member can access knowledge about and support for critical health concerns:  managing stress and depression, recovering from substance abuse, improving reproductive health and menstrual hygiene, and finding their way out of violent relationships.

A member can resume interrupted primary education, receive training and mentoring in entrepreneurship, and develop skills that improve her vocational options.

 Each new skill and discovery enhances individual self-worth and hope, both of which are casualties of poverty. The opportunities for mutual support at a Center foster a sense of sisterhood. When women unite, they imbue their families and communities with confidence to build a better future. A Women’s Center is the most progressive investment a community can make in positive transformation.

A Center serves women whose lives have been defined by poverty, migration, and/or conflict. They range in age from young teens to elders.  They live in urban slums, refugee camps, displaced persons camps, or rural ‘ghettoes’. They suffer ill-health, violent treatment, inadequate supplies of basic necessities, limited or no access to education, and separation from or loss of those they love.  

WCI’s Executive Director has established four Women’s Centers:   Two in Darfur, Sudan for women displaced by genocide; one in Nairobi Kenya, for women living in ‘informal settlements’ with substandard housing, water supply, sanitation, and security; one in Oakland, California (USA) for women impoverished by systemic discrimination. 

These Centers have served nearly two thousand women, providing training and support that has enabled them to start or grow small businesses, secure gainful employment, save and invest money, increase health awareness and ability to obtain care, pursue recovery from substance abuse, and heal from the traumas of sexual and domestic violence.

A Center’s services are based on members’ documented needs and expressed interests. WCI ‘seeds’ the start-up of a Center, ensures that local women lead the work, and helps build their capacity to continue as a community asset.

WCI’s work is focused at illuminating and elevating opportunities for women who’ve become invisible in resource-poor environments. Effective response to the challenging conditions presented by poverty, war, and migration can be facilitated through the introduction of a Women’s Center. It becomes a community ‘base camp’ for distribution of know-how and wealth to those most likely to use it effectively.

This elevating process depends significantly on improving understanding between people through changes in beliefs, and behaviors. First women must see and embrace their own value. They are then able to better inform others’ attitudes about their value, capabilities, and potential.

I was preparing to depart from torturously hot North Darfur, Sudan in 2010 after completing my sixth and final mission there for a Darfuri-led relief organization. I’d requested a meeting with the Darfuri staff of Kassab Women’s Center, the safe haven for displaced women we had built together over four years. They had a literacy program and a livelihood program. We were focusing on the problem of rape crisis support.

I asked the staff (three women and two men) what they would do when allowed finally to return home.

Fatiah, the youngest and most free-spirited of them, peered at me as if I had gone suddenly stupid and replied:  “We will build women’s centers!” At the time, I was thrilled that they’d claimed ownership of the Center mission.

Later, at home, my “Ah Ha!” moment nearly took my breath away. I realized Fatiah actually had pointed me to my life’s purpose: creating women’s centers. It was a joyously defining moment of my professional life.

I would devote the following year to making Women’s Centers International a fully operational non-profit. Within three years we’d opened the first two Centers. We’re planning expansion. It’s what I was put here to do.

I have seen first-hand in Darfur the debilitating conditions women faced when they were forced from their homes by war fighters from whom they had no defense. Crowded in under-resourced camps,  most of them had endured rape.

I  sat in the dank shacks that women in Kariua slum called home, smelled the garbage and sewage, saw how little food they had, and understood how vulnerable they were in these prisons of poverty. 

I know my own daughter has been and remains a target for sexual harassment and violence, simply because she is a young attractive woman. I want better for her – and all young women coming up.

I’ve been privy to stories Center members shared about the violence that defined their growing up years.  I’ve also heard many of their dreams, the possibilities that excite them.   

These experiences pointed me to take a stronger role in helping women achieve what they aspire to. I knew I could  help them navigate a new path. I made this commitment through Women’s Centers International.

This has been the most compelling and satisfying work of my life.

My professional background was in broadcast TV news.  My position as editor allowed me to see lots of international footage and stories that never made it onto the evening news. The narrowness of US media’s world view troubled me, ultimately motivating me to leave. I went to work in international humanitarian aid. 

After learning the ropes at American Red Cross International Services, I began working with a Darfuri-led organization at gave me unique opportunities to work just outside the humanitarian-industrial complex during the genocide. I was able to interact with an extraordinary range of people from local sheiks and government officials to survivors and UN peacekeepers, whose perspectives and ideas informed my direction. My field experience helped me to see beyond the ‘usual’ way things are done, and how important it is to elevate the agency of local people affected by a crisis. I completed 15 development missions in Africa, and understand well how to get important work done despite obstacles.  I've opened four Women's Centers, and seen two of them thrive.

I'm comfortable as a ‘outlier’ in an increasing dysfunctional development system.  The kind of assistance women require became obvious to me by listening carefully to those I serve. Effective response demands a holistic approach that is rare in development services.  I also have an aptitude for choosing allies with passion for working on issue the impact women.  

Global uptake of the Women’s Centers Model will take years, but WCI continues to build momentum.

Early in Baraka Center’s growth, staff arranged a sixteen-week Entrepreneur and Leadership course.  I visited the Center and sat in on a few sessions. As the women absorbed information about the details of small business management, they became preoccupied with accessing seed capital. Would it be forthcoming at the end of the course? WCI had no funds to offer beyond the costs of conducting the training sessions. Someone evidently decided I had promised seed capital.  I had not, and the available funding was spread thin. 

Within a day of the course graduation event, I received a mad rush of requests for seed capital.  When I declined to provide, the women angrily decided I'd led to them.  A lot of griping ensued. I worried that this would jeopardize future courses. But I stated my situation then remained silent.

Several months passed.The women organized several table banking groups - creating their own savings and loans 'bank.' Half the class went on to achieve business profitability. Now there are twelve table banking groups with 304 members, and assets of approximately $10,000. 

This effective solution, created and driven by the Center  members, may not have happened without WCI’s inability to provide seed capital.  

Oakland Women’s Center taught me painful lessons. After steadily gaining-momentum over three-years of service to over 240 women, the perfect storm arose. The WCI Board at the time elected to close the Center rather than raise funding for another year of operation. At the same time, the local leader necessary for the Center to move forward had not emerged –  either from the staff or the members.

Had either of these requirements worked out, the Important progress and connections that had grown among a core group of member could have continued.  The Center's closing was hard to accept. For about three months, I lurched along in grief.

Finally I knew WCI  had to reinvest in expanding in Kenya. I continued on without staff, supported by a few committed donors. Baraka Women’s Center now has the clarity it needs to thrive. A plan for new Centers in Kenya is advancing

Many factors influence the longevity of a Center. I learned that good leadership accepts ‘failure’ as a signpost, one that is as instructive as success. I intend to re-open Oakland Women’s Center when the pandemic recedes, and the right people step up.

Gathering women to work together is an age-old practice, born from women’s hard-wired need for supportive connections, especially when they are mothers.  With the Women’s Centers Model,  we foster connectedness as a vital element of each woman’s  process of reclaiming self-worth and acquiring new life tools. This is the foundation of recovery from the traumas of poverty and conflict. A safe place is vital to the process.

Many programs designed to help women are one-off and narrowly focused.  Women’s basic needs – for education, health, a sustainable livelihood, and protection from violence – are interrelated.  The most effective way to serve them is with a holistic approach. Each woman receives the help she needs to prioritize the steps in transforming her life. 

At a Center, they can depend on the accessibility of help. The Center staff are trained to work with whatever requests/needs present on any given day. They are ‘first responders’ for members’ healing and the restoration of their hope. Experience says the process takes as long as it takes, but consistent support is the defining element of success in reframing and pursing new life options.

The Centers inevitably attract those with the fewest resources:  women of color and minorities. In many ways, establishing a Center is an act of reparation for injustices borne by those who’ve survived on the margins for too long. Refusing to allow these women to ‘fade away’ is the new, higher dimension of performance in services to this future-defining group.

Changes by individuals are the first thing that occur as a result of the programs. As individual changes reach greater scale, they contribute to population-level changes.

This log-frame illustrates WCI's theory of change

World Bank studies and many others indicate that better educated women tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labor market, earn higher incomes, have fewer children, marry at a later age. She has the skills, information and self-confidence needed to be a better parent, worker, and citizen.

Examples of the success of trainings at Baraka Center include:  50% of Entrepreneur trainees continued on to build profitable businesses. At least 40% of participants in vocational training have gotten jobs or built freelance services. Engaging both woman and men in GBV education led to wider understanding that traditional harmful practices damage the life and prospects of the whole family. Counseling enabled many changes and reconciliations.

Qualitative changes have been recorded through the women's many success stories, most concluding with this sentiment:  'I’m encouraging young women and old women who are desperate and have lost hope to visit Baraka Women’s Center to gain back what they have lost in life."  

and

"I'm being trained in so many skills which I am perfecting. I am a changed person and I have a smile on my face once more. I feel I am  loved  and I can share my feelings with people I regard as mothers and sisters.  I always wake up every morning with a purpose for the day and my future.

1,000 Currently served         

2,500  served In one year, as expansion in Kenya proceeds

8,000 served in five years with up to 5 new Centers

Projecting numbers served depends on the site and circumstances. The more urgent the circumstances, and the more accessible the Center is, the more likely that women will be motivated to show up for opportunities offered.  At Baraka Center, over 300 women came on opening day;  their numbers grew quickly, with spikes related to specific programs offered. Word-of-mouth built the momentum.  This trend likely will hold true for other Centers in developing countries and in crisis situations.

Oakland (CA) Center’s membership grew slowly but steadily, with more effort needed for community outreach and information.  We expect this pattern to hold true in new Centers in developed countries.

We also know that not all members stay engaged beyond the activities that hold particular interest for them. Some ‘graduates’ return to give back. Other members participate in many activities because the Center provides safety and their social lifeline.

The other major population served, indirectly, are the members’ children. This number may well exceed the total women. Each mother’s progress substantially impacts her child(ren)’s ability to attend school, stay healthy and safe, and envision a future based on their aspirations.

The estimation of the number of women a new Center many serve has to be based on initial surveys of community need; this has important ramifications for number and type of staff.

Our impact goals, as listed in the Log-Frame, begin a process of change in communities where women’s needs  have been largely invisible. The most important impact is improved members’ confidence and self-worth to meet the challenges of learning and changing.  

In the next year, we plan to relocate Baraka Center to a large facility, begin establishing two new Centers in rural communities in Kenya, and re-open Oakland Women’s Center in the US.

In five years, we will scale and adapt the Model in partnership with ten community-based organizations that have requested WCI's help and guidance. These organization are located in African, the Middle Eastern, and South Asian countries.  The number of Centers in each of those countries can be expanded by using the initial Center as an administrative hub for training.

We envision a global network, in developed and developing countries, of over 70 Centers within the next decade, serving  as many as 100,000 women.

Over the past nine years, WCI has consistently overcome several major barriers:  

1. Community indifference to services for women;

2. Recruiting qualified Board members and staff;  

3. Refining administrative systems and programming protocols. We have a Comprehensive Guide for Center creation and development.

WCI still faces significant barriers to achieve its goals. The top three are: lack of access to capital, effective marketing, and better data gathering, management and analysis.

WCI too often must ‘boot-strap’ to survive. The contributions of loyal individuals have sustained us.  Most institutional funders have yet to understand Women’s Centers as the innovative, adaptable, and scalable response to the wildfire of women’s needs.  We do not have sufficient access to the network of philanthropic decision makers. 

Another related barrier is recognition within the development community. The process of building partnerships and alliances tends to favor large brand-name NGOs. The pandemic has changed the dynamic to begin favoring small organizations like WCI that can mobilize quickly.

WCI”s inconsistent marketing activities have not appreciably improved public recognition of WCI’s work, and thus have not inspired important expansion our primary revenue stream – donations from individuals.

Our data gathering and analysis systems have to be upgraded. We lack staff and expertise to do this. However, the better able we are to use data effectively, the better our capacity to serve the Centers and their members

WCI is privileged to have loyal donors, but we need new ways to acknowledge and keep them.

Going forward, the size and frequency of major donations must increase. We need help cultivating high-worth, influential donors. A celebrity spokeswoman would also be a boon to inspiring more donor engagement.   

We need guidance on the types of investments that could work for a Center’s business venture, and how to blend investments and donations for the overall success of WCI and each Center. Possibly WCI itself could become a foundation, with a mission to secure and channel capital to all the Women’s Centers we help establish.

We want to explore funding though the  U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, the World Bank, and other international financial institutions.

WCI can position itself as the ‘go-to’ implementing partner for UN agencies (UNHCR, UNDP) that manage refugee and IDP crises. We need access to decision makers to help them see how effective the Women’s Center Model can be to integrate gender programming.

WCI wants to improve organizational data management systems. As we take on this challenge, we can ally with the UN Women’s initiative for more robust gender data gathering and analysis.

In addition to WCI's funding partners, we are anticipating connections with new strategic partners through our new Board members.

Partnerships are developed according to the needs of each Center.  Baraka Women's Centers partners include:

Kenya National Federation of Jua Kali Associations (KNFJKA) - advocacy

Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry  (KNCCI) – membership advantages

Medium and Small Enterprises Association (MSEA) - advocacy

Nairobi County Department of Adult Education  - curriculum for adult learning

Ministry of Health   - COVID prevention info and support

Ministry of Environment  - proper use of vocational training materials

Ministry of Public Service Youth and Gender Affairs  -

National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF)  - sponsorship of craft exhibitions

National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) – referral of training candidates

Advocates for Social Change Kenya (formerly MEGEN), - training on GBV

American Friends of Kenya – library donations;  

Equity Bank Kenya – financial literacy workshops

Life Bloom Services International – Entrepreneur and Leadership Trainers

MSF Kenya – Support for AIDS and TB Awareness, Screening Program;

Simon Kamangu, Businessman, donor

Honorable Rachel Shebesh, equipment donations

The WCI business model is an integrated one; selected  business activities overlap with social-benefit programs.

WCI  provides a Center with a self-help model for success. We identify, recruit and train local staff to manage administrative and financial systems, as well as program activities which surveys have indicated are most important to their members.

Program interventions tend to be workshops but may also include one-on-one counseling. Staff identify skilled local trainers and curricula, along with appropriate teaching technologies. Workshops are conducted at the Center.  On occasion, overflow attendance requires use of larger space that allies provide.

These interventions, provided at no cost to members, constructively address the most important elements or segments of women’s lives:  Health (especially mental health) awareness and care; Livelihoods (vocational and entrepreneurial);  Education (literacy and primary), and Protection from Violence.  The women achieve a level of knowledge and competence that would not be possible if they had to seek resources and pay for them on their own.

Indicators of value to the women include preventive health care and screenings received,  new jobs or businesses established, achievement of functional literacy or advancement in primary education curricula, and reduction of domestic violence and harmful practices like Female Genital Cutting and early marriage.

The Center provides vocational training skills that prepare some women for employment in the Center’s own business venture. Once that business achieve profitability, it will add employees as well as devote a percent of revenue to support the Center’s training programs.

WCI helps a Center create a business as a partial revenue stream to support and enhance the initiatives of the organization.

in its early years, a Women’s Center needs a fairly continuous supply of cash for programs. One-off grants and other restricted program funding reinforce a see-saw of ‘boom and bust’ rather than sustain operations over the long term. Operating funds are more effective in promoting growth.

In developing a business, Center members determine the type and product. Not all members are involved.

Following efforts to expand its business of hand-crafted fashion accessories, Baraka Centers saw the pandemic as a unique opportunity to translate sewing skills into production of face masks for COVID prevention in Nairobi. If this small business receives timely cash infusions to offset deficits created by slow-pay buyers, it can emerge from the pandemic as a major supplier of sewn textile products, employing members and providing a reliable revenue stream for programs.

Each Women’s Center needs sustained access to capital until members are able and ready to advance the business and programs on their own.  A combination of investments, product sales, and donations will create stable growth to reach this independence.

Sustainability depend not only on smart plans and competent people, but especially on access to capital - the kind that corporations and major NGOs enjoy.  WCI provides a channel to reallocate wealth where it will do the most good – in the hands of the millions of women that we ultimately can serve.

Previous funding sources (partial list)

2013      Grant - Swiss Re Foundation  $3,000

             Grant - Change Happens foundation  $8,000

2014      Grant - Weyerhaeuser Family Foundation  $11,325

2014- 15-16        Charity Buzz             $11,600

2014, 15, 16       CrowdRise                 $21,564

2014-2017           Event sponsors          $17,100

2013-2019           Major donor            $437,000

Sources of Funds, Year ending June 2020

Individual Donations (120):    $36,551

Change Happens Foundation Grant: $8,000 

In-Kind Donations:  $3,860

Business Donations:  $406.

Product sales (BWC crafts & book sales): $374.             

Revenue from events:  $317

WCI is seeking the following funding to support activities through the next twelve months:

1)      $120,000   Grant ­– Women’s Centers International Headquarters operations.

2)      $68,500     Grant – Baraka Women’s Center Programs – focus on three programs:                                             entrepreneur, Vocational, and Health Training and support services

3)     $30,000 – $40,000   Debt or equity financing    Baraka Mtido Textiles, the new business of                                                                                   Baraka Women's Center

4)     $400,000    Debt or equity - Land Purchase in Kenya for BWC expansion – Fall 2020

5)     $150,000     Grant – Expansion – two Women’s Centers in rural Kenya. in development for 10                                        months; expansion to begin in early 2021

Estimated expense twelve months June 2020 - June 2021

$107,500                 Personnel  (Senior Staff, Trainers, Employees)

$ 20,150                   Equipment   (Computers and printers, workstations, phones)

$ 20,700                   Rent and Utilities    (Leases, phone/internet, power, water, maintenance)

$400,000                 Land Acquisition   (commercial property in Kenya)

$ 13,850                   Supplies  (programs and business)

$ 10,180                   Travel  (in US and Kenya)

$ 17,000                   Professional Services (legal, accounting, other consultants)

$   4,000                   Fundraising costs (donations processing fees, fundraising event)

$593,380                 TOTAL

The prize money would enable WCI to accomplish many goals including the expansion of headquarters staff to scale the Women’s Center Model in the US, support relocation and expansion of Baraka Women’s Center in Nairobi, the growth of the textiles business in Nairobi, and preparations for opening two additional centers in Kenya.

Regarding other services offered:  

WCI welcomes assistance in improving  branding and marketing to increase recognition of WCI, as well as inspire the Global Hero fan base to engage in and support the Women's Centers Movement.

We’re interested in these types of partners

1.     Investors with patient capital

Provide seed capital for BWC’s business venture, Baraka Mtido Textiles(BMT), newly engaged in face mass production for COVID prevention.  Post-pandemic, BMT will build new product lines to position itself as a major textile supplier in East Africa.

2.     Organizational Development Advisors

Support systems (IT, admin, etc.) development during expansion; Ensure all elements of human resources management help retain satisfied, motivated staff.

4.     Data Collection and Analysis Specialists

The massive amount of data will flow during expansion. WCI needs systems to inform decisions about programs, and measure  both qualitative and quantitative impact.  Our Centers can become instrumental in improving the quality of gender data gathered from large representative groups.

5.     Legal Advisors

Advise on contracts related to partnerships, possible real estate purchases, and export/import regulations should the company’s growth involve foreign markets.

Women’s funding networks  - to finance programs at Centers;

US International Development Finance Corporation  -  finance property acquisition in Kenya

Social Venture Capital Funds  - to finance start-up businesses created by Women’s Centers

Marketing expert – to help improve brand recognition on the internet and through various media outlets

Human resource expert –  to guide expansion of staff both at headquarters and in Kenya