This cafe in India is fully run by acid attack survivors

Blue Tin Production Co-operative taps into the sewing talents of immigrant and refugee women in Chicago by offering a living wage to produce work for designers and eventually their own clothing line. The program also offers trauma-informed yoga, legal services, child care, transportation, and language translation to fully support the women. It is the first of its kind and is currently raising money for supplies, but already has produced "life-changing" results for the women's purpose and self-confidence.

Sylvia Acan, co-founded Golden Women vision, an organization that teaches Ugandan women to bake cakes with the aim of helping them improve their social economic status. Many of the women, like Acan, became victims of sexual assault or gender based violence during the Ugandan war insurgency. Now, Golden Women Vision has “61 members: widows, single mothers (some whose children were abducted and never returned), domestic abuse survivors and former abductees.”

Laila Haidary is breaking with tradition, she owns her own restaurant in Kabul, and forms part of a growing trend where women are owning or managing restaurants and denting the male dominated industry. “This idea in itself had its own challenges because our extremely conservative society does not always approve of artistic expressions. Added to that, the fact it is run by a businesswoman makes many people uncomfortable,” she says.”

La Ciudad de Las Mujeres or the City of Women was built by displaced women in Colombia. They are the survivors of violence from the Colombian war. “Today the neighbourhood has its own infrastructure, housing almost 500 people with a school, all built by the women.” The organization has also established a credit fund for micro-enterprises, a brick factory, a community restaurant, and a childcare center.

Fresh Start Farms is a program by the New Hampshire Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success that invites refugees in the state to apply their farming skills here in America to earn an income. Many of the refugees in New Hampshire are from Somalia and witnesses to the Civil War there—and they carry that trauma with them. Having this outlet, where you can do what you know how to do alongside people who have similar experiences as you, is therapeutic. The program is now moving forward with opening up a storefront despite the COVID-19 restrictions.

An initiative run by the UN Refugee Agency in Cairo called NilFurat teaches women in countries around the Nile and Furat rivers creative skills for them to make a living. The women learn skills like hand sewing, machine sewing, product design, startup management, and financial literacy. The program focuses on supporting artisans who come from disadvantaged or underemployed backgrounds and works to foster a supportive community amongst women coming from Egyptian, Syrian, Ethiopian, and Sudanese backgrounds. The group is growing quickly and still faces challenges, but its members are optimistic.

A program called RAPP (Relationship Abuse Prevention Program) uses safe spaces for teens to talk about their romantic relationships with both peer and adult leaders as a way to prevent abusive relationships through education. It is supported by New York City's Human Resources Administration, the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence, Day One, and Steps to End Violence and Urban Resource Institute (URI). The program is now in 94 schools across the city, and participants / peer leaders testify to how much it changed their lives.

For two hours every Thursday, a support group for transgender Latina women called Transgéneros Unidas is held in Long Beach, California. Run by an organization called Bienestar, several cities in CA host these meetings for the women to discuss issues in their communities, health risks as transwomen, and past trauma. Group members view the group as an essential part of their support system and are greatly comforted by the community.

After surviving a traumatic sexual assault in Nairobi, Wangu Kanja founded the Wangu Kanja Foundation to raise awareness of and prevent gender-based violence. The foundation also provides medical, legal, and psychsocial assistance to survivors, shapes policy, and empowers women financially. One program, called "Gender Defenders," pairs past survivors with recent survivors to provide immediate support.

A public transportation system just for women has been developed in New Guinea in response to the extreme harassment that women face. Launched in 2014, the program called "Meri Seif (“Woman Safe”) now serves 170,000 female riders annually and has more than 10 buses. The program is still growing, as more buses get donated, but women already praise the program for increasing their sense of safety.