Betty Adera Foundation

S.H.E. Trades: Strengthening Her Enterprise through Trade and Economic Sustainability

Unlocking potentials

Project Summary

S.H.E. Trades is a women-centered initiative aimed at empowering women engaged in cross-border trade, fishing trade, and petty trading activities in Western Kenya Region. The project seeks to strengthen their capacity, market access, financial inclusion, and policy recognition through training, infrastructure, and networking support.

This initiative recognizes the crucial role women play in informal and formal trade systems—particularly in coastal, border, and rural economies—and addresses systemic barriers that limit their growth, resilience, and visibility.

  1. Enhance capacity and skills of women traders through training in financial literacy, business development, and sustainable practices.
  2. Improve access to markets through support in branding, packaging, transportation, and cross-border trade facilitation.
  3. Strengthen networks and cooperatives among women in fishing, petty trade, and cross-border commerce for collective bargaining and peer support.
  4. Facilitate access to credit and funding through partnerships with microfinance institutions and trade associations.
  5. Engage policymakers to create gender-responsive trade policies and border protocols.
  1. Business and trade skills workshops
  2. Cross-border trade facilitation training
  3. Fishing trade equipment and market support
  4. Petty trade infrastructure (e.g., stalls, cold storage)
  5. Cooperative formation and registration support
  6. Advocacy and policy dialogue forums
  7.