Girls Mean Business (GMB), our flagship outreach programme at ACEW, is an entrepreneurial leadership initiative aimed at Year 7 and 8 girls. The initiative aims to introduce the world of business and entrepreneurship in an engaging environment to empower the next generation of women in the workforce. The interactive workshop went global last month when our research associate, Dr Susan Nemec, spent four weeks in Uganda, visiting ‘Project Moroto’ and working alongside founder Jayne Bailey. We asked Susan for her insights and reflections of exporting and delivering GMB in such a unique yet challenging environment. Her fascinating account can be read below:
“Taking the Girls Mean Business programme to Project Moroto in Uganda to a group of orphaned girls preparing to leave school was an education for both the girls and me. Developed by Professor Chris Woods, Girls Mean Business has been successfully implemented for some years in Auckland schools, including Manurewa Intermediate School, a decile 1, multicultural school. There, I observed workshops introducing the world of business and entrepreneurship and girls excitedly transforming ideas into business opportunities.
“Through my involvement in women’s entrepreneurial education and scholarship at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland, I was convinced that women’s entrepreneurship had the potential to contribute to social change through empowering women economically and promoting gender equality. Visiting Project Moroto provided a chance to apply these insights in another cultural framework. However, I was unprepared for the challenges of ideation in Moroto, where extreme poverty, limited access to internet resources and minimal media exposure make it challenging to foster an awareness of future growth potential beyond necessity entrepreneurship.
“Project Moroto is in one of the country’s most impoverished areas, in the north-east of Uganda, with about 70% of people struggling, or unable, to meet basic needs and access to resources and opportunities. Located 800km from Kampala, the capital, Moroto, is a small township with a population of around 20,000, nestled in a larger district of the same name and home to the Karamojong people. The district is predominantly rural, with most farmers growing small plots of maize and beans, and raising livestock like goats, sheep, and cattle.
“The extent of poverty has led to issues like animal rustling, theft, and child trafficking. Children are vulnerable to being picked up on the streets or sold by their parents, who are unable to provide for them. The township’s central market and shops are basic, catering to essential needs with small micro-businesses, established by necessity entrepreneurs, selling food, shoes, clothing, cooking utensils, hardware, electronics repair services and televisions and at either end of the market, two Sno-Freeze ice cream vendors. There might only be chocolate flavour Sno-Freeze, but this ubiquitous taste delight for about 50 cents (NZ) is a treat for almost everyone.
“Jayne Bailey, founder of the charity Project Moroto and the Alakara Home for girls, along with the help of New Zealand donors, supports a nurturing environment and the educational needs for 39 orphaned and abandoned girls from the ages of 6-22. When the older girls are ready to sit O-levels, they move to a boarding school in a nearby town, and their support continues through to tertiary education. In addition, Project Moroto pays the school fees for 90 other children from impoverished families in the local area. Jayne’s growth vision also extends to a boarding school for 800 girls, opening soon thanks to land donated by the local community and financial support from New Zealand donors.
“Jayne also wants to provide entrepreneurial opportunities for the girls so they can become self-sufficient and eventually establish independent lives, while still maintaining their connection with their Alakara ‘family’. On hearing about Girls Mean Business she was keen for me to come and try the programme with the girls. However, it was challenging working without the internet when it is such a ubiquitous resource available in developed nations.
Girls Mean Business workshop in action
“The first workshop in Alakara Home was held just before the older girls left for boarding school or started training courses in various fields. Although the girls had some prior knowledge of entrepreneurship from secondary school, none had heard of successful Ugandan women entrepreneurs. We pivoted initially from the start of the Girls Mean Business course to focus on examples of successful Kampala-based women growth entrepreneurs. I had previously downloaded some good examples of these women’s business websites in fashion design, skin products made from sustainable ingredients, and construction materials (bricks and terracotta roofing tiles made from local products) and website design and social media marketing.
“I could use these examples as well to explain how online e-commerce works and the importance of promoting products through the Internet and social media. The girls had no idea you could promote your product through the Internet or use social media. There is no such thing as smartphones in Alakara Home, and there’s restricted access to computer labs at schools. If anything, this session really impressed upon them the importance of getting IT skills and choosing tertiary qualifications that included exposure to the potential of software and social media.
“The aspirational focus continued by showing some downloaded fixed vs growth mindset videos and discussing the concept of an entrepreneurial mindset. What I found very inspiring about this session is the enthusiasm the girls could see from applying a growth mindset, not only to entrepreneurship but also more generally to their lives.
“After lunch, we did the idea generation exercise, focusing on pain points in their environment, and eventually landed on two ideas: a very affordable and reusable menstruation pad for rural women, and developing an easily consumable natural contraceptive made from traditional herbs used effectively in rural areas for contraception and sold at the market. We then looked at their lived experience of Moroto’s market and the many examples of necessity-driven entrepreneurship. This led to a discussion about what businesses in the market could hold potential for growth and the idea emerged of a mobile Sno-freeze ice cream business that could be taken to where there are crowds (outside schools, churches, soccer games).
“All these ideas needed research, which I did for the girls on our hotel WiFi. The contraceptive made from traditional herbs is available in the informal market and has been researched for its potential, but commercialisation is beyond what limited funding the girls could access as it will require extensive human trials and significant investment. However, the seed of the idea has been planted. One of the girls in the group has excellent grades and plans to study medicine in Kampala. She says she will do the scientific research! The affordable reusable menstruation pad has too many competitors including the popular menstrual cup.
“The Sno-Freeze idea showed real promise, but the circumstances for teaching entrepreneurship had to shift and part two of the workshop had to go on hold. With the matron (and cook) in hospital and a chronic charcoal shortage in town, the girls became busy preparing three meals a day and gathering firewood for cooking. I used this time to further research and develop the idea with the girls, which included walking into town late one afternoon to have a Sno-Freeze ice cream in the central market and start thinking about how we could make this business different and include a growth plan. Returning to the Girls Mean Business format back at Alakara Home, we could then apply the learnings and insights from the local market to marketing’s 4Ps (product, price, place and promotion): branding (Alakara Ice Creams), different pricing models, different toppings, a self-contained, brightly painted shop slightly away from the market, music and umbrellas and chairs and advertising through an opening event, half-price ice creams for an hour and free ice creams for names picked out of a hat once a week.
“Working through the profit formula with the girls, looking at revenue (different cone sizes and types) and fixed and variable costs, it became apparent the business had the potential to be quite profitable for its scale. The initial capital outlay of about NZ $5000 could be recovered in about 6-8 months, positioning Alakara Ice Creams for further growth and opening other outlets. The challenge is to raise these funds, but the vision is for one day to have sufficient capital to invest in a small truck and generator and grow the business further, similar to Mr Whippy soft-serve ice creams.
“My Girls Mean Business experience in Uganda was a reminder of how firstly, a small business investment can impact the life and family of a necessity entrepreneur who aspires for growth, and secondly, the importance of context in entrepreneurship education and the need for flexibility when faced with challenges and making the most of off-script educational opportunities.”