Awaj Foundation focuses on developing leadership capacity among women workers because we believe that when women take the lead, they can transform both the workplace and the communities towards greater equity.

A crucial aspect of our work in leadership building is to cultivate confidence among women workers so that they are able to speak up and raise their demands. We develop the capacity of women labour leaders in rights awareness, communication, negotiation and bargaining, computer literacy and paralegal training, among others. Working together with our sister trade union federation, SGSF, we mentor women trade union leaders so that they are able to negotiate for better working conditions in their factories.

With support from Awaj, women union leaders were able to negotiate six CBAs between 2016-17, covering over 16,000 workers.

Between 2016-17, women labour leaders trained by Awaj were able to negotiate 6 collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). These CBAs contained ground-breaking provisions such as free ultra-sound checkups for pregnant workers, relief from physically demanding work in late months of pregnancy and annual wage increases and number of paid holidays higher than the legally required amount.

Awaj was started by a woman labour leader and we hope that through our work we can nurture the next generation of women leaders who can become spokespersons for workers’ welfare at the national and international levels.