The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) is a U.S. Government initiative designed to empower 50 million women worldwide by 2025 to fulfil their economic potential. The U.S. Embassy in South Africa has partnered with the Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF) to implement the AWE South Africa program. AWE 2021 is a 16-week long online training program which provides women entrepreneurs business and management training, and helps them strengthen their network and grow as business leaders. 

“AWE offers female entrepreneurs the opportunity to build today the structure of tomorrow. Or like Eleanor Roosevelt said: ‘Do the things you think you cannot do!’ We encourage female entrepreneurs to explore now what lies inside them and who they can become”, said Jameson DeBose, Acting Cultural Affairs Officer at U.S. Embassy Pretoria. According to AWIEF founder and CEO Irene Ochem, the AWE program is not only an entrepreneurial journey for women to grow their business, but a personal journey as well to develop themselves and their mindset, which is vital to becoming a successful entrepreneur. 

Now in its third year in South Africa, another 125 female entrepreneurs were selected to join the 3^rd cohort of this highly competitive entrepreneurship program, which started in August 2021. All the selected entrepreneurs live in one of the five South African cities: Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, and Cape Town.