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 People from three other countries in the European Union met representatives of Lews Castle College last week as part of the Aurora Project to help women start businesses in rural areas.
And in North Uist on Saturday one of the practical results of the project will go on show when an open day is held at Keske Nurseries at Clachan, a business which has been set up by Laura Donkers with the help of business advice and training gained through the project.
The meeting last week saw visitors from colleges in Austria, Finland and France joining with trainers involved at Lews Castle to discuss how the work had gone.
Representatives of the L'APFA Centre, in Geuret, a town of around 80,000 people near Limoges in central France, said the problems of isolation, lack of industrial opportunities and need for training were very similar when they compared the Western Isles with their home area. The French have been concentrating on tele-working whereas the focus in the Islands has been on providing business advice and skills to women who already had a business idea or scheme.
The aim of the project is to bring together areas with similar problems across the European Union. Around £160,000 has been allocated to its work on the Islands, partly from Western Isles Enterprise and partly from the European Social Fund.
A total of 23 women on the Islands have taken part in the project, creating businesses ranging from pottery-making and linen weaving to secretarial services and aromatherapy. They have completed an SVQ in Business Planning-Owner Management.
"The SVQ qualification has enabled the participants to develop the skills needed for running a business and encouraged them to take the plunge into starting up their own business," said Mrs Ina MacIver of Lews Castle College.
Business advisor Billy Mackinnon, who has been involved in giving the training courses, said:" One of the main problems which people setting up business in the Western Isles have in common with other rural areas in Europe is a feeling of isolation and lack of support. A major achievement of the Aurora Project has been to develop a support network for the women involved which will continue after the project has been completed."
Meetings about the project took place in France two years ago and in Austria in 1996. The final conference will take place at the end of next year in Finland where the scheme is aimed at single mothers in an area close to the Russian border.
The aim of the training on the Islands has been to develop existing skills and fill in the gaps which the women had found left them lacking the full confidence to take the schemes forward.
The target of the project in the islands is to create 25 new enterprises.
One of these is Keske Nurseries which was set up to meet the local demand for island-grown vegetables and plants. The plants have been chosen to survive well under the most testing conditions, said Laura Donkers. She will also be providing a garden design service. The open day starts at 11am on Saturday.
Other businesses starting up in Harris and Uist - which were the first areas to have training provided under the scheme - include secretarial services from Donella Joan Macleod in Scalpay. She intends to bring closer to her community the provision of services like letter-heads, menus, printed agendas and minutes, photocopying and similar products.
"It is better when you can discuss directly the ideas with the customer and makes it easier to produce exactly what they want when you can talk face to face with your customer and not down the telephone," she said.
Ursina Maclellan is starting up a pottery in Berneray while a bunk-house/hostel is being set up at Carnach by Gina Macdonald.
Original article Stornoway Gazette May 06 1997.
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