Kopernik's Wonder Women Eastern Indonesia initiative

I want to introduce the NGO that I am working for, Kopernik, and specially, it´s most fascinating project: the Wonder Women program. 

Kopernik’s founders realized that affordable technologies that have the potential to improve people's lives already existed, but they weren’t reaching the people that need them the most. So, for example, 780 million people have no access to a clean water supply, and owning a simple and cheap water filter could provide safe, clean drinking water requiring little effort and a small investment. In order to bridge this gap they launched Kopernik, which works under the idea that simple, life-changing technologies, such as solar light lamps, clean cook stoves, water filters, etc should reach remote and last mile communities to help reduce poverty.

In order to fulfill this mission, Kopernik implements different programs. The initiative that I am working on is the Wonder Women program, since in addition to the goal of scaling up energy access, it has a women’s economic empowerment component. 

How does it work? Kopernik recruits women in different communities that show interest in boosting their income through selling new technologies. These women are able to launch their own businesses without getting into debt because they receive the products on consignment and earn a margin on every sale.

Because most of these women do not have experience in business, Kopernik provides training and mentorship. On the one hand, women receive training in technology use and maintenance, sales and marketing, accounting and financial management, and public speaking. These training sessions prepare them with the skills and confidence to succeed as social entrepreneurs. On the other hand, Kopernik business development coaching and mentoring helps the women to overcome challenges and grow their businesses on a journey to becoming empowered entrepreneurs.

But let´s stop for one second on the name of the program. Generally, when people hear ‘Wonder Woman’, they instantly think about a superhero character, a world leader or a celebrity such as Dilma Rousseff, Hillary Clinton, Melinda Gates, Oprah Winfrey, etc. However, Kopernik Wonder Women are a school teacher from Soe, a housewife from Kupang, a seller in a market stall in Kefa, that have one characteristic in common: they are determined to generate positive social changes for their families through increasing their income, and for their communities by making clean technology available.  

This internship gave me the unique opportunity of meeting many real ‘Wonder Women’ with inspiring courage and community spirit. I got to know their stories by interviewing them and by trying to understand their socio-economic situation, their needs and expectations, the problems they face when they try to sell the products, and so on. One of the women that impressed me the most was a Wonder Woman in Soe, Ka Heni. She was (curiously) the youngest we met and she blew me away with her motivation and passion for being able to impact positively on her community and to increase her income. She was so committed and interested in the project that when we finished with our questions, she started asking us questions and making comments and suggestions in order to improve the program. She had great ideas about how Kopernik can support all Wonder Women to sell even more. That is, she was not only receiving what this NGO has to offer, but also contributing to introduce changes in the program for the better. Definitely Ka Heni is a change agent, an empowered woman and a Wonder Women.