idealist.org

Emerge Global is a Boston-based non-profit that aims to empower young women who have survived sexual violence to rediscover and celebrate their personal sense of beauty, develop their self-sufficiency, and become leaders in their own communities. Emerge Global works with the Emerge Lanka Foundation, its sister organization, to implement programs in Sri Lanka. Emerge Global’s current program, the Emerge Bead Program, enables Sri Lankan girls who have children as a result of rape or incest to become entrepreneurial jewelry designers through a comprehensive curriculum that emphasizes personal discovery, leadership, and business knowledge, while simultaneously generating savings for their futures. Design and entrepreneurship are combined as a mechanism to develop confidence, teach life skills, and strengthen the community’s capacity to effect change.