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The technology industry has not always been inviting or hospitable to women. Gender imbalance in the tech industry has been recognized as an issue sine at least 2005 and, although one would have expected some improvement since then, this has not been the case. In Germany, Dr, Annette Leonhard-MacDonald is doing her part to not only break through the barriers that exist for women in the tech industry by becoming a successful entrepreneur, she's holding the door open and making room for other women in the process.

Dr. Ellis is committed to community change. She has 20 years’ experience in the Education and Social Services industry and she has taken that experience to found The Koci Group, a leadership and management consultancy firm in the Sacramento area. She leads teams in community development, education and the non-profit sector. She lives by the personal mantra “It’s never too late to be what you might have been”. Today we talk about that and her journey into living her why.

In this week’s episode we are coming to you from Peru where we talk the women’s sewing cooperative Grupo Emady.  We learn about how the women have been able to create a self-sustaining business for themselves and susport their families, including special schooling for a member's son with Down's Syndrome.

In this week’s episode we are coming to you from our Willow Tree Roots Women’s Socioeconomic Empowerment Project site in Pachacutec, Peru where I talk to our entrepreneur in training Manuela Peche. Pachacutec is a shantytown village located in the slum districts outside of Lima, Peru and was established in 2000 after more than 12,000 families were forcibly relocated to the area for political reasons. It is currently home to 150,000 people, with more arriving every day. Ninety-six percent of the population lives in extreme poverty and more than 30% of homes have inadequate basic services. Manuela became a mother at 20 years old and comes to our project site to learn how to become a skilled seamstress and entrepreneur by running her own tailoring business to give her children education and help her parents.

In this week’s episode we are coming to you from one of the most impoverished areas outside of Lima, Peru where I talk the women’s knitting cooperative Awaj Makis.