Facing the realities of ongoing global conflict and war is not easy for any of us, but it’s something that Sara Bowcutt does every day in her role as managing director at Women for Women International UK, with an aim of improving the lives of survivors.
Working alongside female survivors of war, Women for Women International UK supports women with the skills, knowledge and education – both economic and social – to help transform their future.
Passionate about women’s rights and about amplifying global female voices – as MD of the humanitarian organisation’s UK’s arm, Sara has the opportunity to make a true and tangible difference to the lives of women the world over.
A Women for Women International training room in Rwanda. Image credit: Hazel Thompson
“We’ve supported more than half a million women, but it’s always the faces and the names of individuals that count,” she says as we chat over a video call, “that’s what’s really powerful for me”.
Here, we speak to Sara about her career (she’s specialised in fundraising, marketing and communications, and has led teams at War Child, Age UK and the MTV Staying Alive Foundation), as well as about Women for Women International’s global approach, programmes and goals; the memorable moments in her career; and how she handles a work-life balance when facing the reality of war, conflict and injustice every single day.
What does Women for Women International do?
We work with women who’ve been affected by war. We work across 17 countries that are affected by war and conflict, and provide a 12-month training programme that equips women with the knowledge, skills and resources – but also the really vital networks that they need – to rebuild their lives.
Calling it a training programme doesn’t really do service to what it is: it’s a really powerful combination of social and economic empowerment training. It’s about investing in women. We invest in the power and potential of women – it’s only a 12-month programme, but what we see from those 12 months is really extraordinary change across the whole spectrum of a woman’s life.
What does the training programme look like?
It’s split into four sections: the first is about health, wellbeing and wellness. A lot of the women that we work with have been through significant trauma, are displaced, or are survivors of sexual violence. This section is about how they look after themselves: sexual, reproductive, mental health and wellbeing.
It’s also about – and I love this next part – rights-based training. Getting women to understand their rights and how they can stand up for them. It’s my favorite part, because we see women do so much with it, and it really helps build their confidence, to know that even if they’re not being told about these rights, they exist. We see women going out there and owning land, divorcing abusive husbands: doing all these things that we grow up understanding, but they might not.
Alongside this, they get vocational training: tailoring to brick making – and everything in between.
We also provide basic business, literacy and numeracy training. For the women that we work with, none of them earn more than $2.15 a day before they enroll in our programme, and most of them have very little or zero literacy and numeracy skills.
A sewing class at the Warvin center in Debaga camp, Erbil, Iraq. Image credit: Emily-Kinskey-Photography
It’s quite an intensive course, but it’s hugely beneficial. We do a lot of monitoring and evaluation, and we know that these women earn more money, save more money, make more decisions at home and in their communities, and go on to run businesses and employ other people.
Something really spectacular comes from something quite small. And I could talk about it all day. It’s my passion.
There are also things that we can’t necessarily measure. Whenever I’ve been to one of our programmes, women will often say that the most important part for them is meeting other women. We talk about sisterhood a lot, and that comes from the women that we work with: a woman in Rwanda once told me that “these women have saved my life”. It’s very difficult to measure, but it’s tangible for women. I love that our programme is both sides: that economic impact, that economic power is really important, but the social power and the confidence that people get from the programme is also really vital.
What are your responsibilities as managing director at Women for Women International UK?
I’ve been at Women for Women International for eight years. We’re part of a global organisation, and my role is about leading the UK; our remit in the UK is about raising money and raising awareness for our programmes in places like Afghanistan and Iraq and DRC. I lead on the strategy for how we do those things. My background is fundraising and I always want to get out there to speak to people – to help us raise money. I have a tactical role as well as a strategic role.
I’m also the main spokesperson for Women for Women International UK, so my job is split. Half of it is internal, and half of it (actually probably more than half of it) is external. It’s about raising money and raising awareness.
Finally, I also have a global role. I sit on the executive leadership team of the global organisation where we make decisions about program ops, fundraising comms, and work with colleagues globally to coordinate our global fundraising approach.
Sara Bowcutt, Managing Director at Women for Women UK at a training centre in Rwanda
How did you get into this line of work?
I didn’t always know what I wanted to do, but when I look back it’s interesting: there were a lot of things that were leading me down this path – and particularly leading me to Women for Women International.
After I graduated, I got a job in comms and marketing and it was the communication side – the storytelling side – that I loved. Being able to bring people on a journey. This was a for-profit role which was never really, you know, in my sphere. One of my girlfriends at the time was working in events for a UK charity, and I thought it was great that she gets to do something that means something. I got made redundant from my marketing role, and called an agency who had a contract job as the executive assistant for the director of fundraising at what is now Age UK. I went to work in the fundraising team of this big UK charity and it was like a light bulb moment.
I’ve always been a bit precocious and very values-led, and as soon as I got that job I could see all these passionate people, and that the money you raised went into something with meaning – and that was really it for me. I did that for a couple of years and realised that fundraising is very like communications and marketing. It’s really about storytelling to get people invested in a cause.
And what led you to Women for Women International?
The turning point in my career was when I worked at War Child. I was there as War Child was growing, and, for me, that was really the crux of understanding how conflict impacts people. I worked in micro-finance and organisations that invest in women, often in places around conflict-affected countries, like Central, East and West Africa. It was while I was at War Child that I heard about Women for Women International, years before I started working here.
It’s been a long journey but I think it was all leading me here. I’m so grateful for it all as well. When you look at the charities I’ve worked at they sound different, but really they are value-based and what they’re trying to achieve is self reliance for people – and mainly for women and girls.
Why does Women for Women International focus on females?
We do actually run a men’s engagement programme as well – we’re definitely not anti-men over here. We appreciate that we need men involved in equality. It’s about everybody, and of course, conflict does affect men too, so we have an engagement programme that is specifically about training men in how women’s contributions to communities can really impact that community.
But we’ve worked in conflict-affected countries for over 30 years now, and we know that women often carry an additional burden in conflict-affected settings. They are affected by the conflict themselves, but they are often the ones that are left behind to pick up the pieces; like taking on non-traditional roles in running households, earning money, looking after children – and not just their own children. I’ve met women who have told me things like “my neighbour died a couple of years ago, this is their child, and I’ve brought them in”.
We also know – and there’s a lot of research around this – that when women are economically empowered, they tend to invest that not just in themselves. They invest in the education of their children and in their local community, and then everything starts to improve. There’s a known ripple effect when women have social and economic power: in development improving, in peace staying longer, and in children becoming educated.
And we know – and there’s a lot of research on this too – if children are educated earlier, then things like poverty decreases, child marriage decreases. All of the good things that we want to happen.
Tell us about a memorable moment you’ve had as part of your work
Every time I visit one of our programmes, I’m blown away.
A few years ago we took some of the senior people from a major corporate partner on a trip to Rwanda. We were driving through a very rural part of the country and I was terrified because we were on this rickety transport, looking over a mountain. I kept asking the driver “can we get out and walk? I really don’t think we should be driving”.
We were going to visit a group of women who had set up a Village Savings and Loans Association which interested me a lot, with my micro-finance background. We’d digitised it, so they all get smartphones, for example. They took us into a room – and I mean a dirt-floor, no-windows room – and invited us to sit on the floor in a circle with them to show us how it all worked: they were counting what people owe. Who’s paying back? What loans are people taking? They told us what they’ve done with the money: like they’d bought a goat.
There was one woman in there who was quite young, but very confident and very outspoken. She asked me if she could speak to me and, through the translator, she told me about her experience in the programme and how she was trying to save enough to build a house. She said to me, “I’ve now become a leader here” – she was one of the Chiefs of this area, which very rarely happens. She’s taken on this community leadership role at a really young age. She was so proud: she’s built this business, she’s saving money, she has this vision that she’s going to build a house, and now she’s a leader in that community. She said “people come to me and they ask me for help. People come to me now.” The pride on her face – I don’t think I’ll ever forget her.
They’re the big stories and I won’t forget those, but at the same time I hear stories like “I’ve started selling tomatoes on the side of the road,” which is also game-changing for these women.
That’s one of the things I love about Women for Women International: it’s individual impact that matters. Yes, we’ve supported more than half a million women in all these countries but it’s always the faces and the names of individuals that count. That’s what’s really powerful for me.
As part of a Citizen Femme panel talk earlier this year, you spoke about how women deal with struggles across different cultures. Could you summarise this for us?
Girls’ Graduation Ceremony in Iraq
Women all over the world deal with struggles in the same way, it’s just that the context is different; the things they have to deal with are different. But women are the same all over, and the education piece is the same everywhere. If you and I grew up not knowing about our rights, we’d be the same as anyone else who doesn’t know about them. And then when we were told about them, we’d be doing the same as women in Iraq do.
In my time at Women for Women International, I’ve learnt that this is the kind of support that women need to be able to be resilient in these types of settings. And I think that’s the other reason that our programme is built the way that it is – it’s all very well and good having something within you that is able to deal with hardship and be resilient in these types of scenarios. But you need a certain level of belief that you can do it, and resources to be able to do it. I mean financial but also knowledge.
What we see women do with 12 months training is incredible. In Rwanda I really saw the journey that women can (and do) go on in our programme. I met a couple of women who had only just joined the programme, and it was quiet in those classrooms. And then I met women who were just about to graduate, and the classrooms were loud and raucous – and that’s less than 12 months down the line.
I also met women who were six years post graduation, and who were growing coffee beans and selling them to businesses – a huge cooperative of women up on this mountain with their coffee beans, and plans to export outside of Rwanda. Seven years ago, they were living on less than $2 a day. Now this. Those are the kinds of transformations that we see.
You also discussed government cuts to funding during the CF panel talk…
Yes, and it’s not just the UK. This is something that we’re seeing across the board. It’s a move away from multilateralism and a move towards militarised approaches. For me, it’s extremely short sighted, and it’s going to perpetuate the issues that development and aid budgets address. That’s the thing that makes me really frustrated and concerned about these kinds of cuts. It has not been thought through; taking something from the aid budget and putting it into the defence budget doesn’t really make sense to me, or to many of my colleagues in the sector. We’re trying to have conversations with the government – saying what does this mean and why now?
Faced with seeing global injustices every day, do you maintain a work-life balance? If so, how?
I’m pretty good at work-life balance. I’ve sort of learnt, particularly in the last four years since doing this job as managing director, that if I don’t look after myself, I can’t do this. I’ve lent into the idea that I can have an impact in this area and in something that I feel really passionately about – but I can only do it if I’m well and if I’m protected from some of it.
I’m really lucky that I have an amazing team. I’ve got a brilliant assistant, we organise the diaries so that I can have breaks. I used to compartmentalise it all quite a lot, but learnt that that’s probably not the right way because it means I’m not dealing with it. It’s peaks and troughs, and it’s impossible to not take some of it home. But in general, I’m quite good.
I don’t tend to work really late into the evening. I’m better in the morning. I’d rather get up early and be online before anyone. I have a dog too, we go for a good walk in the morning and get some fresh sea air. I’ve really lent into meditation and all of those things over the last eight years too. The other thing is, I’m quite a heart-on-my-sleeve kind of person. If I need to have a cry, I’ll have a cry.
There’s also a balance, particularly when I come back from a trip, or when I speak to colleagues who live and work on the frontline in these countries – I think ‘well my day’s been fine compared to hers’.
Being able to do things like this interview, or events where I go and share stories, is also a way of sharing the load. Part of my job is about raising the voices of women who’ve been affected by war, and I take that responsibility really seriously. If they can hold that load, I can go and talk about it. And that idea of ‘I am doing something’, protects me a bit. But I’m not always great at it. I wouldn’t be good at this job if I didn’t care, and if it didn’t hurt sometimes.
How can we support what you do?
By making a donation – no matter how big or small – or raising awareness, every one of us has the power to help build a more equal and peaceful world.
This week, Women for Women International is taking part in the Big Give Women and Girls Match Fund: starting today and until midday on 15 October, all donations made here will be doubled, at no extra cost to you. £5 becomes £10, £20 becomes £40, and so on. We’re aiming to raise a total of £10,000 for women and girls in conflict, and whatever you can give will make a difference. Find out more and donate here.
If you’d like to invest in long-term support, you can stand with a woman survivor of war for £22 a month. You’ll be matched with a woman in the Stronger Women, Stronger Nations programme so you can share messages of support as she takes steps to rebuild her life. Find out more here: Stand With Her
If you’re unable to give, help amplify Women for Women International’s work and the voices of women we serve.
This interview was conducted over a video call and some sections have been edited for clarity.
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