On Empowering Women........

Recently, I was placed in the precarious position of having to explain to a fellow woman why I am so passionate about women’s empowerment. She believes that the playing field has been leveled and all these initiatives are in vain and unnecessary. I had to hold myself back from hitting her on the head with my laptop filled to the brim with research on why women are still a vulnerable group in 2015. 

So I’m sharing why I am passionate about women. I have always been very timid. I think I am now just growing into myself, anyone who has known me for over 10 years can attest to this. I have been lucky to have been mentored and been given opportunities to shine by people who recognized that in spite of a being skinny, shy girl, I had something important to contribute. And because of these people believing in me, I have a chance to make something out of my life and provide a great life for my daughter and I. 

Now, not so many women have a similar support system, in fact most women do not. Most women go through life doing what society says they can do, we are raised to aspire to traditionally feminine roles. Most parents I know are in a panic that their daughters are not married because this is the ideal epitome of success for a woman. Marriage is not bad, but we can be more than wives. In fact, I believe an empowered woman is a better wife. You need a life partner to help you steer this thing called life not someone who will just be dead weight on your boat and who better than a woman who can contribute to more spheres of life than housekeeping. 

So yes, the opportunities may be the same for men and women but social constructs still exist holding us back. Women lag behind men in technology adoption owing to the high costs of acquiring and maintaining new technologies, women have longer hours of work because not only are we gainfully employed but it lies with us to take care of the young. 

And for our homes, our economies and our nations to grow, women need to be part of the development conversation because women have a higher propensity to use their earnings and increased bargaining power to buy goods and services that improve family welfare. And family is where it all begins and ends. This is why I am passionate about empowerment of women.

On Zimba Women....

"I don't want to be rich in a land of poverty."

That quote has haunted me ever since I started this pursuit of happiness. How can one be happy with their status quo of wealth and satiety when surrounded with such poverty, such horrible squalor. This has often been my motivation to give, to help the needy but I always felt the urge to do more. Teach a man to fish, that type of thing. So in 2012, as I was going about my business, something happened that led to this;

Alot of ideas were given and that led to the birth of a company called Ajali. (More here )
It was meant to run an incubation program for SME's set up by women based on the TBS(The Baby Store) model. The initiative was meant to provide capacity building, technical assistance, financial support, mentoring and business guidance as well as invest in a woman-led profit venture. We were looking for high-potential, low income women to support to start their own businesses so that they can become financially self sufficient. Alas, that did not take. Between running a business, going to school, a full time job and raising a baby, there was simply no time or energy left for me to implement what we wanted. Hanifa continued making her soap, and all I could do at the time was market for her on Facebook as well as hold some of her inventory at my store.

Come 2014, I finally decided to bite the bullet and quit my Job to focus on the store (which was now strictly online) and baby raising. But being me, there was still energy left for more. So ZimbaWomen was born. This time, I was armed with more experience from running a business for more than 2 years, with co-founders who are as passionate as I am about empowering women and a lot more time on my hands. With ZimbaWomen, not only are we running an incubation program for women but we're enabling their businesses using ICT's. We have been operational for barely 6 months and the traction we've had is nothing short of amazing. We've been blessed to partner with agencies that share the same vision as we do.

The ZW ladies having an information session at our partner agency Uganda Investment Authority.

We are have signed up our first cohort of women for the year and the growth that some of them are experiencing is unbelievable. The best example of this is a cake maker who has gone from an order a week in January to having a single order every day of the week in March (Just a space of 3 months!) We are excited about the coming months. We are still drafting the final work plan for 2015 but we're pleased to say that it is coming together quite nicely.

Peace.K (Co-founder and I) taking a selfie break during work.

And Hanifa, Well, I ran into her recently. We had lost touch because I changed numbers and she didn't have any way to reach me. Sadly, her husband passed last year and she was left to fend for her 3 children alone. The good news, she's still making that wonderful soap which she is supplying to several shops in Kampala. Even better news, I am in position to finally guide her to the help she needs. We're working together so her business can be formalized so that she can have access to finance and her products properly branded, marketed as well as refine her distribution channels. 

2015 is going to be a good good year.

Bisous.

S.

On life and lemons....

Ola,

The start of a post is always the hardest to write. I always wonder, should have a light and breezy greeting or should I just dig right into the gist of the matter. Anyhow, courtesy of my second enterprise; ZimbaWomen I have been placed in a precarious position of having to inspire, encourage and guide women. (Ha! Don't laugh, it's true) And I'm kinda getting good at it. Lord knows where the words come from cause I don't.

So this morning, I was called by a friend who's having a life crisis of sorts, she feels she's achieved nothing she set out to do in her twenties (She's in her thirties now). She had big dreams to change the her life, that of the people around her and the world. She is exceptionally brilliant but feels every idea she has is hitting brick wall after brick wall and she's running out of steam. She blames it on the country in which she lives and she just wants to move back home and start all over again. I felt I'd share a little bit of what I went through regarding movement of locations to chase one's dreams to give her fresh perspective.

See, I have a love-hate relationship with this country of mine, Uganda. For most of my teenage years, it was mainly hate. I was a brilliant child (You know, those annoying kind who just ace everything placed in front of them) and I felt like the system I was growing up in failed me everyday, it did not challenge me, it did not push me to think. All it did was push me to memorize and memorize I did. In my second year at secondary school, we were lucky to have software engineering interns from The University of Waterloo. I was a geek, so I spent most of my time in the computer lab with them. My mind was blown at what they could do and what they were learning. I'd always known I was going to do something with computers but now I knew where. That year, the university of Waterloo was ranked the best university in the world to study computer science. The decision in my mind was sealed in stone.

Come time to go to university, I failed to get into Waterloo. I was not deterred. I applied to hordes of other schools abroad and luckily managed to get into a few. I got partial scholarships to 2. Back here in Uganda, I had a full scholarship to Makerere. For my parents, the decision was quite easy. I was livid. To add insult to injury, all of my friends were leaving the country. ALL! One to SouthAfrica, another to the US, another to Russia and the last to Kenya.  Emotional turmoil does not properly describe what I went through. I laugh at the fickleness of it all now but it was quite traumatic then. I was clinically depressed and boy did I act out. My first year of campus ended with me having quite a reputation for partying and a couple of retakes.(Mum, if you're reading this..I apologize. Alas, your baby is not a saint.)

I am an avid quote collector (Is this a thing?!) Anyhow, I remember finding thise quote by Ben Carson ; "A victim walking through sand looks down and sees dirt, a victor sees the ingredients for building a castle." I walked around for a month, not going to class but that quote never left my mind. It played over and over in my mind. I could choose to wallow in self pity (Such first world problems ..tsk tsk) or get over it and try to do something with this "shallow, nonsensical" education I was receiving at the Ivory tower. I finally re-engaged with the world, made new friends and graduated (this last one was a miracle). And I've not done too badly since. I'm sure I definitely would not have done any of the things I have if I'd left. Maybe, I'd have done greater things but they would not be the same things I've done here.

The point of this little story is that we focus so much on the negatives, on why and how things have gone wrong and we stay in that place for so long stunting our growth. I honestly believe, you can do great anywhere in the world, Uganda, US even Afghanistan. Just take whatever lemons life throws at you, build a fucking lemonade stand and sell it back!

Be a victor.

Bisous.

Of a brave little girl

My daughter and I are huge fans of Disney movies, the classics and the new (Frozen anybody?!). We have a ritual; I bring home a set of DVD’s, hide the familiar looking ones (she’s obsessed with Simba from lion king, so any movie that has a lion will be watched ad infinitum. I am still recovering from Penguins of Madagascar). So I pick one that she will enjoy and maybe relate to, pick any lessons where we can. The flavour of this month has been Aladdin. We swooned over Jasmine, were mesmerized by the cave of wonders and terrified when Jafar turned into the biggest python we ever saw and promptly ran out of the sitting room. So much so, she now calls it the snake movie.

Evil villain++

In spite of all the dramatics involved (running and hiding during parts with Jafar) she has insisted on watching the movie every night. This behaviour lasted till a few days back. This particular night, we settled in front of the TV to watch our movie as per usual, when it got close to the part where Jafar turns into a snake, she got up and went to the bedroom and returned with her maleficent stick (The staff from Maleficent, she got a makeshift one) so anyways, she stands in the doorway, waits for Jafar to turn and runs towards the TV brandishing her stick. I literally flew to grab her before the stick hit the screen and held her. And there she was fighting to hit the snake in TV with all her might. It was a highly entertaining sight. Luckily, Jafar was turned into a genie and locked away in a lamp soon enough.

I did not think any of it until yesterday when I told a friend this story and when we were done laughing deliriously, he went,”I suppose that took a lot of courage.” And it hit me then what a brave little girl I am raising. She watched Jafar turned several times and ran and hid. Then she decided this one time that she was done running, she was going to do something about it. So she armed herself and prepared to kill the “snake”.  I can’t believe that I am now profoundly inspired by my 3 year old. We face snakes every day, in several aspects of our lives, and we keep running and hiding. It’s about time, we picked up those sticks, looked fear squarely in the eye and killed it.

Bisous.

On naysayers and women who are winning ...

Ola dolls,

This was meant to be a situation update. Alas, that will come when I work up the energy to write properly. Writing is such hard work, who knew?!

Anyways, I was featured in African Woman (Yey!). Read the article here. That brought a lot of positives, I've seen a surge in orders and am sure it's because of that. What I did not anticipate was the negatives. I was shocked and a little disappointed to find out that a group of people think that the store (my dream, my baby, my vision) is a smoke screen. Apparently, I am a doing a lot of hard work laying on my back and that's what's paying for my bills and "lifestyle". What lifestyle I wonder! It's just a mark of how small minded and deeply patriarchal this society is. Because a woman at my age cannot possibly have achieved the things I have (such tiny minuscule achievements at that). What hurts me most is that these are people who have watched me literally pull myself out from the bottom. These are people who I met as a lowly intern and told that I was going to be a CIO. It simply amazes me that it's unfathomable to them that I have spent the past years in their presence evidently working my bottom off and this is what they think of me now.  Ashawo! Abeg! Find another insult.

Oh and no shots fired at my sisters dealing in the flesh trade. I see and respect your hustle. Someone has got to do it. I am quite sure I am not above it. I have a child, so help me God, I'd do anything within my power to fend for her, whoring inclusive. But no, that's not my current line of trade. Sorry to disappoint you all.

Tell em Joseline!

Early this month, I had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with a phenomenal woman. She owns and runs a million dollar company operating in more than 5 countries. She was born and bred in Uganda like me. I was (and still am) in awe of her. How she turned a 2 person operation into this giant of a beast is nothing short of awesome. As we parted ways, my request to her was this; write. Write it all down. For us, the women who are trying to get to where you are.

I spend a lot of my time speaking to and encouraging female entrepreneurs thanks to ZimbaWomen (more on that in the situation update) and the most common attitude towards business or life for that matter is FEAR. Women are afraid. Not cautious (which is a good thing in business). Just plain old fear. We fear to invest our savings. We fear to commit our time. We fear to share our ideas. We fear to formalize. We fear to ask for help. Drat, we fear money!  We are paralyzed by this fear. Thanks to the mentorship program courtesy of Cherie Blair that I am part of, I have been able to interact with quite a lot of women who are at the peak of their entrepreneurial careers and the one thing that all these women have in common is the lack of fear. She wants a contract to supply inventory, she hunts it down, fearlessly. She wants finance, she marches into a bank and asks for millions of dollars. They have realized that doors will not open for them, they have wield an axe and break the door down. Women who win are not afraid!

Here's to all the women I know (myself included) conquering their fear;

Bisous.
S.

Progress Report Numero...: 2 Months 19 Days

Ola Dolls,

You have not been abandoned. I am simply busy. Building a startup is hard. But so is building anything worthwhile. The highs are incredible, the lows even worse. It's like raising a child (and believe me, I know all about this)

So a quick update before I run off to a meet with a UX designer;

- The team has grown from just me to 2. I was overwhelmed and the business was starting to suffer. I have been lucky to find someone who believes in this even more than me maybe. Very very valuable addition to this TBS journey.

-We're overhauling the site design to something super cool and super professional. We're are overwhelmed by the reception from early adopters and we have stopped thinking local. We recently fulfilled an order from Rwanda so word is spreading faster than we had anticipated. We are playing catch up.

-I am now part of 2 prestigious mentor-ship programs; Mara & Cherie Blair. Building that social capital.

-I have marketing help from 2 reknown marketeers. I hope am doing them proud every day. Building a brand is hard work but it has to be done. We want TBS to resonate within this region and it will. Bold, Aggressive and Bullish is our strategy. Watch this space.

-The e-commerce scene is red hot in kampala right now. OLX, Jumia, Kaymu, Cheki and Hellofoods. Can't call it cause it's early days but change is upon us.

-In the midst of this hullabaloo, managed to attend a Unix workshop (My IT skills are my backup plan, can't let them rot) and I am working on another venture.

-I do not sleep. I am cranky. My social life is suffering. I have a wonderful support system. The most has been from a totally unexpected person. Lesson....never ever burn bridges. Ever!!

-I relate this journey to when I just had my baby. The first months were the most difficult, being in and out of hospital. Adjusting to nurturing this other being that is solely dependent on me. TBS is my new baby.

xoxo

I AM A WOMAN'S WOMAN!

I am a woman's woman!I am not a feminist. They are different, I do not demand equality and fair opportunity. I demand more! A woman nurtures life. A woman feeds a nation. When a woman is empowered, her family is empowered. Her entire social circle is empowered. Heck, I believe God is woman. I am proud that all of my initiatives right now involve and are about women. I will happily spend the rest of my life lifting myself and my sisters up. 

There has been a lot of furor all over the place about two women; Desire and Leah. One has been slut shamed and turned into a meme, the other( the equivalent of slut shaming but based on physical appearance. See,there's even no word in the English dictionary to describe what was done). The treatment has been brutal, I can not imagine how they are surviving. I'd need therapy. The professional kind. Scratch that, I'd need to lay in Oprah's bosom for awhile to heal! What has hurt me the most is that the loudest voice in all this noise has been from women. We have abused, slandered and beaten down our sisters.  Why? We women need to stick together in the face of adversity. If we cannot be for each other, who will be. We already have so much working against us. We live in a patriarchal society where we need to break down barriers every single day. Everything we get, we have to work harder than normal for. There is no need to make this work harder for each other.

Anyhow, both released statements soon after the hullabaloo. Leah laughed in the face of this adversity (standing ovation for you, my sister) but on the other hand, Desire has apologized. WHY? My dear Desire, you did nothing wrong! It is your body, your prerogative on whatever you do with it as long as it within the bounds of the law. Your only mistake was to trust a fool but who hasn't. You should not be prosecuted on such baseless terms. That summon to police, hire a good lawyer and tear it up. The person who should suffer is everyone who has distributed those images. You need to take back your power and along with it that of many women,should we be victimized for a crime that is clearly not ours.

 What Father Lokodo is saying in essence is that if I were raped, I would be summoned to police as opposed to my rapist. Lokodo, desire's reputation has been raped repeatedly, by several publications in this country! They and that man who started this storm are the ones who should be summoned. SHAME ON YOU FATHER,for participating in slut shaming. You of all people should know better.

Desire dear(and all my women), I leave you with this;

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Maya Angelou, 1928 - 2014