July 2025: Behind the picture

The July Photo:
WOMEN EMPOWER WOMEN

In this image, you can see one of the mothers of our 22STARS children who runs now a small market stall in Acholi Quarter, Kampala, thanks to having receied a micro loan and small business training.

Entrepreneurship classes at 22STARS
More than 100 mothers of the children that are sponsored through 22STARS have received micro loans and small business training. The moms participate in our small business trainings and received a micro loan from around 100 to 250 euro. We have in total now about 100 moms participating!

The moms have various businesses, from selling charcoal, vegetables and hair dressing. Whenever we cook at our office we buy our things locally, everytime from a different market lady, to help them out as much as possible. So if you need vegetables or want a new hair cut, you know now where to go!

It is really important for us that also the families of the children are empowered and become independent and self sustainable. We don't want the kids to grow up with the mindset that they have received everything from only their sponsors. We want them to see and acknowledge the hard work their parents are doing for them. Hence why we want to help them succeed in their businesses by providing trainings and micro loans.

Entrepreneurship Program: CHALLENGE

We work in the communities of Acholi Quarter, Kampala and Danida, Jinja. Both areas are one of the poorest in the region, where many people live on only $1 a day. We realised many of the people living here couldn’t grow their business due to illiteracy, poor time management and a negative outlook regarding business growth. In Acholi Quarter many men and women are working foremost in a stone quarry, which brings them barely enough money to survive and worse, is even dangerous for their health. And in Danida, many people were working long days in nearby factories without having any employment contract. Lasting growth depends on the empowerment of communities through education, skill-building, control of natural resources, and effective interaction with society and their governments. The best way to move forward is to ensure that the families of the children we work with can become self-sustainable.

Entrepreneurship Program: SOLUTION

The 22STARS Foundation originated as the 22STARS Jewellery business in 2013, as we always believed that making people self-sustainable through entrepreneurship is the best way to end poverty. We co-designed and marketed the women's jewellery on the Western Market. Already back then we used the profits to also focus on growing the local businesses of the women, so that they would become independent from our selling techniques.Hence when we established the 22STARS Foundation in 2017, it was for us a natural step to focus besides the Child-Sponsorship program also on the Economic Development of the parents of the sponsored children. We at first partnered up with Entrepreneurs Hands Uganda (EHU), to give Entrepreneurship training to the parents and caretakers, mostly women, of the 22STARS sponsored children. Every new member of our Entrepreneurship Program received an intensive four-week training from EHU, then they created in-depth personal profiles for each participant to see how to help them the most. By providing microloans, setting up a saving system, and monitoring ongoing progress these people were able to start small business such asfood stalls, hospitality, clothing (tailoring and thrift stores), and local transport (mototaxi).

In 2022 we have decided to change this formula, in order for our community to be self-sustainable, and we created a local committee, formed by some of the beneficiaries of our program. The committee is in charge of disbursing and recollecting the loans, monitoring the progress of our members, and making sure that the loans are paid back and are restributed within the community. The loans are issued every 6 months and are paid back on a monthly basis by our benficiaries.

Entrepreneurship Program: GOAL

Our goal is helping our local committee to have access to more fund to be able to enlarge our impact within our communities. Availability of small, but repeated loans is, in the long-term, expected to positively impact the lives of our beneficiaries. In order to keep our Entrepreneurship Program running, be able to hand out larger loans and add new beneficiaries to the program for this year 2023 we are looking into raising €5.000.

Each month, we will publish a blog post exploring the story behind the featured Charity Calendar photograph, offering insightful commentary and additional images. Check here which months we already posted.