Welcome to the latest update from Biedrība We-Mean! We are incredibly proud to serve as the Latvian partner for a transformative Erasmus+ initiative the EmpowerHERment KA220 project, officially titled as “EmpowerHERment – Equipping Migrant Women with Skills for Social Business, Leadership, and Sustainability, Empowered by Problem-Based Learning, Digital Innovation, and AI Tools“, this initiative is fundamentally reshaping how we approach social and professional integration for women immigrants.
Co-funded by the European Union, our overarching objective is to equip over 100 female migrants with vital entrepreneurial, digital, and employability skills. By leveraging an AI-enhanced online training platform and Problem-Based Learning, we are developing accessible, tailored education that directly aligns with Erasmus+ priorities.
Recently, our consortium conducted a comprehensive Gap Analysis to lay the factual groundwork for our upcoming curriculum for educators. The insights gathered represent a “triangulated truth” derived from 253 stakeholders across five partner nations, blending quantitative data from 181 surveys with qualitative insights from 52 focus group participants, 10 expert interviews, and institutional SELFIE assessments.
Our research confirmed a crucial strategic pivot: we must move away from the “Individual Deficit” model and address the “Institutional Failure” model. Integration is not a linear educational journey; it requires navigating structural friction points that currently sequester migrant women at the socio-economic margins. To create a genuinely effective intervention, our ecosystem targets three non-negotiable systemic gatekeepers:
• Functional Language Erasure: Language is a structural barrier. Without the proficiency to navigate legal rights and institutional contracts, migrant women remain in a state of dependency and invisibility.
• Legal and Administrative Precarity: Opaque residency processes and the non-recognition of foreign qualifications actively produce “de-skilling,” systematically pushing highly qualified women into the informal economy.
• The Motherhood Penalty (Temporal Scarcity): Disproportionate care responsibilities act as rigid temporal barriers. This “care burden” depletes the cognitive bandwidth needed to engage with traditional, inflexible educational models.
Furthermore, we identified a critical Digital Paradox. While there is immense interest in AI-enhanced learning, high data costs and reliance on smartphones create barriers. Consequently, we are ensuring our AI-Enhanced Online Training Platform and App are mobile-first and optimized for low-bandwidth, offline accessibility. Technology must facilitate inclusion, not serve as a secondary layer of exclusion.
We-Mean NGO
Co-funded by European Union
