SPOTLIGHT

The T. Boone Pickens Foundation focuses grants to organizations that operate in its core giving categories (see “About TBPF”). The current partner spotlight is the Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women, formerly known as the WIPP Institute.

This non-profit public charity dedicated to the economic empowerment of women focuses on educating, mentoring and coaching women in the United States and abroad. The agency’s mission is to help foster a world environment where peace will naturally prevail, based on the philosophy that nations that are economically sound are in a better position to promote and accept peaceful solutions to conflicts. Peace through Business brings women entrepreneurs to the United States for training and mentorship. These women go back to their country to start or expand their business and pay forward their training to other women.

“I believe firmly in the bedrock of this program, that our free enterprise system is a building block for successful economies and democracies throughout the world,” Mr. Pickens explains.

Pickens Foundation’s support, two grants earmarked for use with the 2007 and 2008 classes, has helped an Institute program focused on businesswomen in Afghanistan. In partnership with the U.S. State Department, U.S. Afghan Women's Council, and universities, the Institute's goal in the first phase of its program is to bring women business owners from Afghanistan to the United States to engage in a high-level, five-week business basics curriculum and mentoring program. The second phase of the program focuses on long-distance learning and mentoring via technology. This will provide the on-going support and knowledge necessary to maintain the enterprises.

“It simply is not possible to help women around the world without the support from the private sector,” says Lin Weigel, director of Program Development, Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women. “The T. Boone Pickens Foundation did more than step up to the plate with financial support, they also sent Marti J. Carlin, Director, Community Affairs, for the foundation to meet the women, mentor with them, and offer assistance all along the way. Many Foundations simply offer financial support, but we have been so impressed with the hands-on approach that the T. Boone Pickens Foundation embraces, showing their true colors of dedication to freedom.”

Unmeasurable but important are the long-term effects students and women business owners from both countries will gain from this program. The program will give Afghan women the opportunity to interact with women whose life experiences and perceptions of the world are vastly different from their own. The project will give universities the opportunities to forge new relationships with their counterparts in Afghanistan, and with local organizations. Women in the United States will be introduced to women who are struggling for the kinds of freedoms Americans take for granted.

For more information, visit www.ieew.org or call 405-943-4474.