Entrepreneurship Support Fund Builds Souvenir Businesses

Praskovia puts the finishing touches on a handmade souvenir during a craft making class organized by The Izmail Entrepreneurship Support Fund. Sales of handmade souvenirs such as these will help Praskovia to support herself. (Photo Credit: Izmail Foundation for Entrepreneurs’ Support) Izmail, Odesa Oblast - Praskovia Tanova, disabled from birth, had few job prospects in her hometown of Bolgrad in southern Ukraine.  Craft-making had been her life-long hobby, but she had never considered it a viable career option until she read in a local newspaper about an organization that was training people to develop small businesses.  Together with some friends from the Bolgrad Association of Disabled Persons, Praskovia attended the training.  Later, she and her friends used what they learned to launch their own small business selling dolls and ceramics they made by hand. “This project helps disabled people to adapt to society,” said Praskovia.  “It gave many of us jobs.  We will continue our craft making business even when this project is over.  We are trying to expand to different markets right now, and the Bolgrad district government promised to support us in the future.” The Izmail Entrepreneurship Support Fund, a local NGO, began this project during the summer of 2007 with support from the Eurasia Foundation, the OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine and the U.S.  Agency for International Development.  The Foundation helps unemployed people establish small businesses and make existing businesses more profitable by providing job skills and small business development training and support in the Izmail area of Odesa Oblast.  They also teach them how to network and market their products for this tourist destination on the banks of the picturesque Danube river delta. The Izmail Entrepreneurship Support Fund not only provided training, but also has helped to form the Association of Craftsmen of Prydunavia, to help business people develop marketing and sales strategies.  In the coming months, project organizers will launch an online store (www.danubesouvenir.com) and publish colorful brochures to help the entrepreneurs advertise their crafts, as well as to organize two showcase exhibitions.  Marketing support will include cooperating with local tourism agencies, supplying retail souvenir stores, networking with individual rural tourism providers and offering souvenirs to tourists arriving by boats at the local port. Since the project began, the Fund has trained 98 individuals in 26 master-classes in traditional craft techniques, such as doll-making, ceramics and weaving.  In addition to participating in small business development trainings, six participants traveled to the national crafts festival, Karpatskyy Vernisazh, in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast to become familiar with the Western Ukraine festival experience. “This project gives a second chance for national souvenirs and creates new job places for many people,” said Yuliya Rozzhyvina, head of the Bolgrad Association of Disabled Persons.  “For many disabled people, participating in this project is an opportunity to change their lives.”

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