With a wide smile on her face, Gwokyalya Noeline shares with us her journey of growth since her enrollment and completion of the six-month Street Business School model entrepreneurship training conducted by Child’s i trained social workers.
She is part of the Luwaala grandmothers’ group in Mpigi district supported by Child’s i Foundation through our devoted team of social workers under the Grandmothers Project.
As a grandmother of 10 children, she has set up multiple income generating activities to support her and her grandchildren. These include; rearing egg laying chicken, a soft drinks kiosk and tailoring.
Her motivation to enrol for the training was her quest for knowledge and value addition to not only herself as an individual but her businesses. With the responsibility of her children and grandchildren, she felt the need to ensure that her multiple streams of income are thriving.
“The training gave me the courage to start. Initially, I had so many business ideas but did not have the confidence to start. Through the; Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone module, I have been able to gain the confidence to kick start my soft drinks kiosk,” shares an excited Noeline.
One of our social workers Irene goes on to share that, “Many of the grandmothers lacked confidence to execute their ideas but by the end of the training, a number of grandmothers had established income generating activities.”
As a result of the training, Noeline intensified marketing efforts for her chicken and egg business seeing her reaching out to new markets outside her locality.
“After the training in marketing, I decided to look for more customers outside my village to increase the sales and market base. My chicken and egg business has now grown increasing my sales and profits”
–Gwokyalya Noeline
Despite the milestones reached, she has also faced challenges along the way like; the price fluctuations and hassle to get into bigger markets. However, this has not deterred her from her dream of growing her business. She continues to pursue other markets.
Noeline’s story is an inspiration to many grandmothers who are looking for the confidence to start up businesses. She has gone ahead to encourage other grandmothers to utilise the available resources that they have and some of them have started a vegetable business.
The Grandmother’s Project is a community-based support system for children at risk of separation being implemented in partnership with Nyaka global. The project provides assistance to grandmothers who are caring for these children, whether they are biologically related or not (such as in foster or community care). By forming savings groups, these grandmothers can access funds to start or expand businesses, meeting household needs more effectively.
