Red Lipstick inks Dubai deal to empower women

WOMEN empowerment group, Red Lipstick Revolution, this week signed a potentially defining memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Dubai (United Arab Emirates) based lobby group Evolvin Women, involved in women upliftment initiatives, for the two to work together in identifying and training local women to secure jobs in Dubai.

Red Lipstick Revolution founder Dr Abigail Magwenzi said this in Dubai after inking the deal which will see recruitment of about 500 women and girls for training to get job opportunities in Dubai’s hospitality and retail sectors, where they will earn between US$500 and US$1000 per month.

Dr Magwenzi said this during the MoU signing ceremony at the Zimbabwe pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, which was attended by Expo 2020 Dubai Commissioner General Ambassador Mary Mubi.

This comes as Red Lipstick Revolution has been mobilising women, under a a campaign code named Zim Women Do Dubai, to seize business opportunities in that part of the world and rest of the UAE market.

Dr Magwenzi said earlier last month her organisation had taken advantage of the ongoing Expo 2020 Dubai, where Zimbabwe is among 192 participating countries, after opening on October 1, 2021 runs until March 31, 2022 to explore trade opportunities through one of the UAE’s leading Emirates.

And this week she said the recruitment of the Zimbabwean women and girls would be done in phases targeting those from vulnerable, disadvantaged and traumatised backgrounds in order to give them an opportunity to work in Dubai’s hospitality and retail industries.

“In the hospitality industry they will be earning about US$500 per month, given that accommodation is provided. In retail, about US$1 000 a month,” Dr Magwenzi said, pointing out a Zimbabwean lawyer, Thenji Moyo, who based in Dubai, played a key role for the initiative to happen.

“She is the one who connected to Assia Ricco of Evolvin Women, because she was doing these (sort of) programmes already, I think for five other African countries, but is now also in Zimbabwe and she has the right background for us also to go in the programme as Zimbabwe,” Dr Magwenzi said.

Evolvin Women founder, Assia Ricco, said as an organisation they were currently running had a two year development programme in Dubai aimed at empowering African women from difficult backgrounds.

She said the identified women were prepared or equipped with requisite skills for work interviews and are also given key information on Dubai’s private sector before going to Dubai, UAE.

Further the women are assisted with travel Visas and have employment contracts concluded, after which they travel to the UAE.

“Once they are here they work, have a salary here in Dubai, they have accommodation and medical insurance and from our side we provide training and development, which is either financial literacy, leadership; anything that has something to do with mentoring and coaching,” she said.

“We do have at the moment a 100 ladies in UAE on the programme from Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia; Zimbabwe now is next, Malawi and Ethiopia. The idea really is to have a partnership, where we have Dr Abigail Magwenzi.

Ambassador Mubi praised the initiative by Red Lipstick Revolution and Evolvin Women saying a similar success story existed in the Philippines where there was an active engagement in training young ladies in certain sectors to have relevant life and work skills.

“I think, also, that has to be part of our skills training . I know that in the olden days we had, as part of the curriculum, domestic science, but because of our history, we said these are skills that are very colonial.

“But in fact, these are some of the skills that are being lost; house cleaning and house work, (there is need for) organising yourselves around these issues and if you are going to target young ladies, obviously (training them on) how to handle electrical goods, all these things, which we take for granted, (are important),” Ambassador Mubi said.-The Herald