January 2024: Pison Business Development Consultants has completed training and mentoring 140 Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) from 14 constituencies in eSwatini. This training was done under the project “Halting HIV/AIDS and Reversing its Impact in the Swazi Society”, implemented by World Vision Eswatini, initiated by the Co-Ordinating Assembly of Non-Governmental Organisations, and financed by the Global Fund. The project covered AGYW between the ages of 15 and 24. Pison Consulting was assigned to conduct training and mentorship under the economic empowerment pillar of the project. Upon completing training on HIV/AIDS and learning to save money through a co-operative scheme, Pison was engaged to train these women on entrepreneurship and to provide mentorship. The broad aim was to empower AGYW to generate their own income, which has helped reduce their financial dependence on male sexual partners. The project was a response to findings that HIV rates are at their highest within this demographic group because it also suffers the highest levels of unemployment. Pison consultants took these women through a specialised training programme that has helped shape their business ideas into a reality.  Three institutions that offer funding for businesses (Eswatini Bank, Eswatini Youth Enterprise Revolving Fund and the Eswatini Development Finance Corporation) were invited by Pison to participate in the training to inform AGYW about the requirements of accessing funding for SMMEs. The training provided by Pison was rated highly by the AGYW, as seen from post-training feedback, which showed satisfaction levels of over 95% in all four training venues.