Nofotane is translated as ‘stay or live with husband’, that is, women who marry outside their home village.As Nofotane women are often regarded as the lowest class of women in Samoan society, they are highlyvulnerable to exploitation and lack control over their lives. SVSG’s case management team has identifiedthat the majority of female victims are Nofotane women.With a vision to empower these women to become business owners, SVSG applied to the UN WomenFund for Gender Equality (FGE) to establish the Nofotane Project (2016-2018). This project deliveredlivelihood training workshops to over 5,000 unemployed Nofotane women across Samoa as part of thefund’s economic empowerment program. More than 600 (12%) of these women started a small business and earned an income from the skills they acquired. To address the identified problem of unsustainableincome generation, SVSG applied to EC’s Civil Society Support Programme II for the Sustainable IncomeGeneration & Self Employment of Nofotane Women Project (2000-2022). The project attracted over 6,000registered members and created over 600 active earners. The Nofotane Shop next to SVSG’s head office opened in June 2021 to sell products made by Nofotane women under the Nofotane brand. In June 2022, SVSG launched the Nofotane online shop due to increasing local and international demand for the products. To sustain the momentum together with a greater understanding of the needs of Nofotane women andincreasing rates of gender- based violence in Samoa, SVSG is applying to the EC to fund the Nofotane Samoa Social Enterprise (NSSE) Project (2024-2026). This project will empower a significantly higher number of Nofotane women through employment, education and training, and empowerment initiatives.