International Women’s Day is more than just an annual celebration of women’s achievements. It’s about accelerating action to address obstacles and foster new opportunities for women and girls in all areas of their lives. The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is committed to improving the lives of individuals experiencing disadvantage by supporting organizations that expand access to financial resources, services and technical skills for women and girls who have been historically excluded.
To celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, we’re highlighting four of the Hilton Foundation’s initiatives that are investing in women and girls’ education, businesses, economic mobility and healthcare in Los Angeles and abroad.
Our Refugees initiative takes a market systems approach by investing in organizations like Village Enterprise’s model supporting women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia. Their award-winning DREAMS program is designed to provide refugees in Ethiopia with income opportunities and resources to build small businesses. Their work strives to end extreme poverty by investing in the entrepreneurial spirit and inherent skills of refugees.
As of 2024, DREAMS has impacted over 41,000 individuals—nearly 78% of whom are women—and helped establish more than 1,200 businesses. DREAMS funds refugees’ success with resources like seed capital, mobile banking accounts and financial literacy training to sustain their businesses.
We’re also supporting nonprofit Accion as they provide small business funding and training to women refugees and micro-entrepreneurs in Ethiopia. Thanks to Accion’s resources, Nyabang and her husband, Chot Tut, have made a new home in Ethiopia, opening a small shop in the Jewi Refugee Settlement in Gambella.
“Lack of working capital is the main challenge I face,” says Nyabang. “The volume of stock I can afford [to purchase] doesn’t match the demand.” Accion connected her with local partners to set up a credit line and continue meeting customer demand. Nyabang also received personalized training to build her digital and financial capabilities to help keep her business running.
Accion and Village Enterprise provide tailored models that support refugee women by addressing their unique challenges, such as learning a new language, adapting to a different culture, and navigating complex regulations and restrictions.
As part of our Safe Water Initiative, we support Water4 in providing sustainable, safe water solutions to rural communities in Wassa East, Ghana. To make this happen, Water4 invests in locally owned and operated water services businesses—many of which are run by women.
“Women in this community that otherwise wouldn’t have had any job are able to work for themselves, get income for themselves, and contribute towards their family welfare,” said Annita Kumah, communications manager for NUMA, a subsidiary of Water4.
One local water vendor, Kate, doesn’t just provide safe water for her community; she saw an opportunity to build her own ice-making business and worked with NUMA to get it off the ground. “Kate is a woman with a very entrepreneurial mindset,” Kumah said. “So, she spoke to us. We found a way to get her a refrigerator that she is going to pay on an installment basis.”
As a mother and wife in Wassa East, Kate hadn’t been trained to hold her own job and build a career. Now, she is able to buy clothes for her children and pay for their school fees.
“Once a woman is able to work, it changes her confidence,” Kumah added. “It moves the person from a place where she is dependent on the husband or the father for everything. So, she is able to get something for herself on her own when she can.”
By the end of 2024, Water4 had provided continuous water services to more than 16,000 people, with 99% of water points free from contamination in the Wassa East district. We continue to partner with Water4 to expand safe water services and create a local, replicable model that can catalyze equitable access to safe, affordable drinking water (SDG 6.1) globally.
At the St. Patrick’s Secondary School in Mazurka, Zambia, 300 girls have already finished their programs thanks to Bakhita Partner for Education, a grantee partner under our Catholic Sisters Initiative. Many of the students are pursuing their next level of education.
“The success stories, I will tell you, are unprecedented,” said Harrison Banda, Head Teacher at the school. “A majority of our students in this school are extremely poor. The Bakhita Partnership for Education and its sponsorship has been a big deal to their lives.”
The Partnership provides school supplies, life skills education, and teacher training to help build a community where girls and women can live and learn in safety. For instance, Abigail Chapewa, Head Girl at St. Patrick’s Secondary School, received her sponsorship from the Bakhita Partnership for Education.
“I’m glad that I’ve been put on the sponsorship because right now I’m not missing classes,” she said. “[Bakhita] paid our school fees in full. They have given us uniforms, school shoes, almost everything. I’ve been given it all thanks to the sponsorship.”
Our partners at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Healthcare (MLKCH) launched a team-based, midwifery-centered perinatal program to reduce maternal mortality in South Los Angeles. This region has a severe shortage of maternity services and would need 116 additional doctors to provide adequate prenatal care. This shortage has contributed to high rates of preterm births, infant deaths and maternal health issues in South Los Angeles, disproportionately affecting already underserved communities of women.
CalMatters highlighted MLKCH’s efforts to save their maternity care program, one of the few remaining in the area. Their comprehensive midwife-led team approach, which includes an obstetrician, dietician, health educator, psychologist, and social worker, has been celebrated for its positive outcomes for both mothers and babies.
In 2023, as part of our Early Childhood Development – U.S. initiative, we invested in MLKCH’s comprehensive perinatal care model. The Hilton Foundation takes a holistic, two-generation approach to child development, nurturing both caregivers and their children to ensure every child can reach their full potential. This includes ensuring traditionally marginalized women have access to safe and reliable maternal health services.
Through continued support, we can increase access to these vital services so that every mother in South Los Angeles receives the care she deserves, ultimately improving health outcomes for both mothers and their children.
Whether they’re mothers, children, entrepreneurs or business owners, women and girls across the world deserve the support they need to thrive throughout all stages of their lives. This International Women’s Day—and every day—we’re proud to help provide these foundational resources through our ongoing initiatives and the inspiring work from our grantee partners.