– Winnie Auma

Winnie Auma is the Uganda Country Director of Village Enterprise. She has been a part of Village Enterprise since 2010 and held numerous positions within the organization. She holds degrees in Education and in Business Administration and Management, and was selected by the Harvard Kennedy School in May 2019 to participate in their Emerging Leaders Program for rising U.S. and international leaders. Winnie narrates an audiobook chapter of Peter Singer’s 10th-anniversary edition of his landmark book on reducing extreme poverty, The Life You Can Save, alongside celebrities Kristen Bell, Stephan Fry, and Paul Simon.

Peter Singer published his landmark book The Life You Can Save in 2009 to demonstrate why we must help those living in extreme poverty and illustrate the many ways to save lives by giving effectively.  In the decade since, the book has created massive change reducing global extreme poverty, founded a nonprofit organization of the same name to promote the idea of effective giving, raised millions of dollars for effective charities, and improved countless lives.

The 10^th Anniversary Edition of The Life You Can Save addresses the continuing need for change and aims to inform, inspire, and empower all to help those in need. Village Enterprise’s Uganda Country Director, Winnie Auma narrates a chapter of the audiobook version alongside celebrities Kristen Bell, Stephan Fry, Paul Simon, and more, and Village Enterprise is prominently featured in the section “Better than Aid” of the book. Download the ebook and audiobook here for FREE today.

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Village Enterprise teamed up with Marie Stopes to institute a Long Term Family Planning project, under the funding of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Since our business owners struggle to access adequate health facilities, our Uganda Country Director, Winnie Auma, felt that a partnership with Marie Stopes was a great opportunity to help our clients get the health services they need without draining their bank accounts.

The goal of this partnership is to achieve measurable improvements in access to family planning at health facilities and community levels.

The project targets women and men of reproductive age as well as community leaders to champion advocacy.

For one week, Marie Stopes International Uganda traveled long distances on dusty, pot-hole ridden roads to reach the rural villages in which we operate, such as Oringoi, Uganda. While Village Enterprise Business Mentors mobilized the community, Marie Stopes service providers set up a mobile health unit, complete with two sanitized private patient rooms. Over the course of the day, attendees received group training on family planning and contraception methods as well as individual consultations tailored to personal health needs. In addition, participants could opt to receive integrated medical services such as the insertion of an intra-uterine device (IUD) or contraceptive arm implants, as well as cervical cancer screenings.

But why did Village Enterprise opt to partner with Marie Stopes in the first place? Marie Stopes Interpersonal Communications Coordinator, Ronnie Aisu, explains, “partnering with Village Enterprise is important because it demonstrates the linkages between savings and health. Family planning enables women to be healthier and to have more equal opportunities to pursue an education, a career, and financial security. With fewer children to support, families can accumulate greater assets and invest more in their children’s health and well-being. The relationship between smaller families and greater wealth highlights the benefits of sustained investments in family planning and maternal and child health programs as an important poverty reduction strategy.” While Village Enterprise does not itself offer health services, we recognize that physical and financial health are intertwined and that this partnership will not only improve the well-being of our individual business owners, but of their entire communities.

Village Enterprise business owner Grace Akello testified to the importance of this project. Grace, a mother of seven, previously had negative feelings about family spacing. Despite her doubts, she attended the family planning day in her village because she explained, “I already have so many children and taking care of them is difficult.” After participating in the family planning training and receiving individual consultation, Grace began to see the advantages to family planning. She said, “Now that I have joined family planning, I will have more time to care for the children I already have and to plan for my business activities.”

 Grace Akello, mother of seven and attendee

Marie Stopes service providers explain the importance of family planning and contraception

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Within Trans-Nzoia County, where I currently work in Kenya, land has been sub-divided to the point that many families are left with only 0.02 acres of land to subsist on, while others are completely landless. The majority of this population is composed of youth, ages 18-25. Left without the ability to participate in the standard micro-enterprise choices in farming, many of these individuals gravitate towards livestock businesses. While a livestock business can be a good investment and helpful as a non-cash savings plan, it is not always a significant income generator. As a result, this population struggles to earn a sustainable income that will lift them out of poverty.

The emerging hypothesis from local leaders and Village Enterprise field staff is that expanded business selection options as well as adjustments to program design are required to meet the needs of those in the community who lack land assets, particularly young adults. One solution presented by field staff at the most recent Innovation Summit, a week-long conference to collaboratively design and develop new ideas and incremental innovations that improve our impact on people living in extreme poverty, was the inclusion of new vocational skills trainings. Skills training would provide our business owners with additional business options besides the traditional choices of agriculture, livestock, and retail, and potentially create a more stable form of income for our landless participants.

Our team took the idea and ran with it. Today, we have roughly 40 businesses (totaling 120 business owners) that are participating in our pilot of vocational skills training in the Saiwa Swamp area of Kenya. The business mentors in this region, Peninah Mulama and Gilbert Chepkwony, conducted extensive research, including interviewing business owners and analyzing business profitability in local markets, to identify new opportunities that would be the most viable in this specific region. They then selected local entrepreneurs with specific skills to lead trainings such as soap making, baking, and creating animal seed. Through these trainings, business owners obtained new skills that allowed them to launch businesses that are deemed profitable in Saiwa.

“I always say that they make one chapati and then photocopy the rest,” business mentor Gilbert laughs as he points at the Digital Hotel sign. Business owner Esther justifies “we are all youths and youth live in a digital age.” Esther is one of three young business owners, along with Milicent and Leah, whom run the Digital Hotel (restaurant) in a rural village in Sitatunga, Kenya. Their menu is extensive, including local favorites: chapati, ugali (maize porridge), mandazi (donuts), githeri (boiled maize and beans), and maharagwe (local beans). Since both Esther and Leah attend school part-time, using their grant funds to start a restaurant seemed ideal. They could then work early in the morning to prepare the kitchen and then switch-off shifts serving guests. When asked about the impact of the training, Milicent shared, “the training was very helpful because we did not know how to bake. Now we can cook mandazi!”

I strolled next door to David’s barber shop and caught a glimpse of him in action, hair clippers gliding across his customer’s head. David is a young man of very few words, but he left a major impact on me. You see, barber training was not one of the trainings offered by Village Enterprise. He not only attended the soap-making and baking trainings, but also visited a barber shop in another town to gain the skills necessary to open his own business. David is using the profits from his barber business to run a side kuku (chicken) business, which provides additional income to assist his family. It was clear that David was proud of his new skills and committed to his shop’s growth. When asked what he hopes for the future, he shared “I want to modernize and one day purchase a bigger mirror and swivel chair.”

Despite the evident impact business skills training is having on business owners, there are also unique challenges facing us in this pilot program, particularly related to the high number of youth participants. Due to stigmas against microfinance and unwarranted fears that Village Enterprise provides loans (that need to be paid back) instead of grants, initial attendance rates were low. Gilbert also pointed out that “it can be hard working with youth because they are not static. They are always on the move. In fact, five migrated because they were promised jobs elsewhere.” When women participants get married, they often move to the town where their husbands reside. Gilbert laughed and added “youth are more cunning. They tell you everything you want to hear even if they may not have completed the work.”

But from my perspective, the benefits far outweigh the challenges. In fact, our team is already brainstorming how we can incorporate elements of this pilot in other areas of our operation. Two of our business mentors, Eunice Kiombe and Imelda Midzukani, are expert soap-makers, so we filmed a soap-making training to share with business owners in both Kenya and Uganda. If data reflects that vocational skills training does have the positive impact we project, our team hopes to leverage the skills of our staff and external experts to train all business owners. It’s still early in the pilot, so I won’t jump to conclusions but I can say that it has been incredibly refreshing to see youth business owners creating innovative businesses.

Business owners like Dorothy remind us of the payoff of constantly bringing new ideas to life through our pilots. Dorothy has an impressively profitable soap-making business. There is a high demand for soap—for washing clothes, utensils, bathing, and handwashing. And the soap Dorothy learned to make at a Village Enterprise training is cheaper to produce than competitors sold in the stores. Not only are neighbors now purchasing their soap from Dorothy, but they also collecting bottles collected at community events for her to reuse. In the next year, Dorothy hopes to be the main provider of soap for the schools in her area. With the profits she has been reaping, Dorothy has been able to diversify the food her family eats and pay for her children’s school fees. Best of all, Gilbert translated, “she is empowered economically.” Dorothy finishes pouring the soap and says, “I am smart.” Dorothy has always been smart but now she can use her smarts towards running a successful and sustainable business.

Business owner, Dorothy Luyai, pours liquid soap she made at her home in Sitatunga, Kenya.

Esther Nekesa and Milicent Kavosa stand in front of their restaurant called “Digital Hotel.”

David Alima in action at his barber shop.

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