Success Stories

Using her skills and resourcefulness, an entrepreneur rises in Ukraine’s new market economy.

Victoria Nikitina worked at a state baker’s plant in Ukraine for 20 years and often dreamed of producing healthful fresh breads in her own bakery. As her country moved from a centralized to a market economy, Victoria’s business aspirations grew even stronger. But, with neither the means nor the training, her vision seemed destined to remain a fantasy…until she read about a U.S.-funded program to help increase Ukrainian women’s economic opportunities.

Victoria applied and was accepted to the project’s two-month business training program, where she learned about marketing, business management, self-motivation and entrepreneurship. Upon completion of her training, she registered as an entrepreneur and within a year had established a successful small bakery in her village with four employees. The demand for her products soon exceeded her capacity, and Victoria now has plans to rent additional space, hire eight more bakers and possibly even expand to other parts of Ukraine. She also hopes to expand her business offerings: she is attending Kyiv Food University to learn how to make breads for people with special dietary needs.

Victoria is one of nearly 13,000 Ukrainian women who have received business training through this project. These women have established or expanded more than 1,000 businesses and created roughly 2,500 jobs — the majority of them filled by women left unemployed by the closing of state enterprises. Credit unions affiliated with the program have made almost 1,000 loans totaling about $1 million to project participants. And 48 new business associations have been formed.

For one Ukrainian baker, this micro enterprise program not only provided the grist to mill her dream into reality, it enabled her to participate with thousands of other newly empowered women in their country’s changing economy.

You, too, can help empower others in our One Shared World.