Entrepreneurship Program
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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.
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 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 receives an intensive four-week training from EHU, then they create 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 are able to start small business such asfood stalls, hospitality, clothing (tailoring and thrift stores), and local transport (mototaxi).
GOAL
Availability of small, but repeated loans is, in the long-term, expected to positively impact their lives. In order to keep our Entrepreneurship Program running we need €300,- each month, to pay for our Small Business Trainer and his transportation costs (between Kampala and Jinja) to come to train and monitor our beneficiaries. This comes down to €3600,- a year. Additionally we would love to add €5.000,- to the loan program to add even more beneficiaries and hand out larger loans. Therefore our goal for this year is €8.600,-.
