The Women's Wellbeing and Development Foundation recognizes that women need to empower themselves at multiple levels – personal, interpersonal, and social. In order to meet their needs, and those of their children, a wide-range of programs are required that harness the resources of the entire community.

Women's Wellbeing

In order to promote total well-being, WWD-F encourages development projects that empower women in the community to meet their basic necessities and achieve personal fulfillment. Women's well-being refers to a dynamic state of balance and growth, in all three spheres of life—physical, mental, and spiritual. We support natural methods that strengthen the body, balance the mind, and elevate the spirit. Nutritious food and regular exercise, combined with practices such as yoga and meditation, are regimes that keep women fit and harmonize them with their inner self.

Women's Development

Conventional development, mainly concerned with economic growth, is now considered a defective model. It has been associated with the feminization of poverty, political instability, and environmental degradation.

WWD-F proposes a comprehensive development strategy consisting of three components.

The first component addresses the need for all women and children to have access to the basic necessities of life, including food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and education.

Three types of programs help in this regard:

•  Health and medical centers – Poor health and disease mostly arises due to the lack of resources or inadequate education. A holistic wellness approach brings the body and mind back into balance through the selective application of diverse healing systems, such as traditional medicine, naturopathy, western medicine (allopathy), homeopathy, ayurveda, and yoga therapy. WWD-F's health clinics bring together medical and health education professionals who are trained in these different approaches. The goal is not only to cure the illness but to impart lifestyle changes that empower women to take control of their health and the health of the family.

•  Schools and Literacy programs - WWD-F supports projects that use a neo-humanist education approach ( see Our Approach- Education ) that develops the full potential of the child, awakens a thirst for knowledge, and imbues students with ethical values, ecological consciousness, integrity, self-confidence, self-discipline and the spirit of cooperation. The foundation provides assistance to a network of pre-schools, K-12 schools, colleges, and adult education programs that extend educational opportunities to the most neglected sectors of society.

•  Economic Development – WWD-F helps women overcome the barriers to economic self-sufficiency through training and business development programs. An adequate income depends upon a number of factors – training, support services, and the availability of good jobs. WWD-F promotes cooperatives as a successful business model that harnesses women's natural cooperative nature to generate individual incomes and community solidarity.

The second component of WWD-F's development approach is to raise women's consciousness so that they can overcome the social, cultural, and political barriers that women face.

Without human rights, gender equality, and social participation, there is little chance for attaining women's wellbeing or development. Through presentations, workshops, and informal gatherings, women and girls gain an understanding of the attitudes and social mechanisms that perpetuate discrimination and exploitation in their communities and in society as a whole. Then, they can build alliances and partnerships capable of effectuating long-lasting social change.

The third component of development is based on the realization that the entire humanity, all living beings, and the entire planet, compose a singular universal family. This planetary consciousness leads us to act in an interdependent and mutually supportive way. For development to be sustainable and progressive, it must balance human needs with the environmental conditions which surround us. WWD-F attempts to fine-tune development projects in order to maximize progress for women and children while remaining sensitive to the rights of the natural world.

“By providing women with access to economic and educational opportunities, as well as the autonomy needed to take advantage of such opportunities, an important obstacle to poverty eradication would be overcome.”

United Nations, Division for the Advancement of Women