Tag Archives: #entrepreneurship

Family roots + UCU applied learning = graduation

January 28, 2021COVID-19, News, UCU Alumni#entrepreneurship, #Kapchorwa, #potatoes, #UgandaChristianUniversity, business, Mukono, Uganda, UgandaPartnersPatty Huston-Holm

By Collin Wambete

In addition to sickness and death, the COVID-19 pandemic reaped loss of employment and gaps in education around the world. Youth in Uganda have been discouraged and even more hard pressed to make money, including acquisition of funds to go to school.

Amidst the storm, Cherop Lillian found an answer to her personal situation. That answer – potatoes with an occasional onion, fruit and other edibles – enabled her to graduate on 18th December 2020 with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and Entrepreneurship at Uganda Christian University (UCU) with financial security.

She brought Irish potatoes from her home in Kapchorwa District, which is roughly 266 kilometers (165 miles) away from the UCU campus Mukono District. Starting in February 2020, she set up a retail business 50 meters (164 feet) away from UCU’s main gate. First, raw potatoes, onions and fried potatoes were sold. Ready-to-eat, fresh fruits followed.

Cherop Lillian at her December 2020 graduation from UCU

For Lillian, the lockdown that started in March and the subsequent loss of customers posed a threat to the survival of her business. She’d make fries from potatoes and sell to the students that were on campus. Her target market predominantly being students, the lockdown threw a wrench in her plans.

Who would she sell to? With transportation being shut down for 32 days, what would she sell?

She cut down her usual trade of six-to-seven 100kg (220 pounds) bags of potatoes to two bags. For most of 2020, no one was around to buy ready-to-eat fries. Lockdown measures eventually eased up and UCU, under Standard Operating Procedure guidance from the Ministry of Health, was permitted to let finalists return to campus and complete their studies. These final-year student customers returned on October 15th when UCU re-opened.

Food was the obvious product for sale. History told her so. The earliest business venture she can remember is selling vegetables on her veranda. On holidays, she fried cassava chips in senior six and senior four.

“It is a must for everybody to eat food, so this is a viable business.” She said.

Logistics was part of the survival. Since her produce comes from Kapchorwa, her business depends on the stability of crop prices there. Transport costs shooting up all over the country due to curfew and new road restrictions was an added obstacle.

“I spend 75,000 Uganda shillings ($20.50) to transport five bags of Irish potatoes and this is too high for me,” she said. “I wish I could buy my own van; it could be much cheaper.”

Lillian’s business survived. On January 1, 2021, it was stationed 100 meters (328 feet) from the main UCU gate. Most days, she was at her stall by 7 a.m. She employed five staff. In addition to potatoes, sometimes they sell homemade passion juice.

“At my age (24) I am trying as much as possible to find my destiny, and the mistakes I make today become very big lessons to me especially in business,” she said. “I do not ask for money from people and my parents are glad that as a girl child, I am independent and able to cater for my basic needs”

She advised fellow youth to venture into business, have self-drive, and aim at growing business instead of focusing on profits at the beginning. These skills, she acknowledged, were largely learned in her program of study at UCU.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org

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Job loss during COVID-19 opens colorful, creativity door

November 1, 2020COVID-19, Faculty#COVID19, #EastAfrica, #entrepreneurship, #fashiondesign, #Lockdown, #tailoring, #UgandaChristianUniversity, UCU, UCUPartners, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

Pauline Nyangoma shows off one of the gratitude cards she gives to her customers.

By Maxy Magella Abenaitwe

The late physicist Stephen Hawking once said: “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”

When the Uganda COVID-19 lockdown, including education suspension, started in mid-March 2020, Uganda Christian University (UCU) continued paying its workers full salaries. In two months’ time and with no tuition income, however, the financial strain was elevated. Only a handful of essential workers were kept with salaries reduced by 25%. Sadly, that payment decrease for these few continued to be reduced as UCU adapted to change.

Pauline Nyangoma, a Communication Assistant at UCU who was not among the essential workers kept, was adapting, too. Bankrupt, anxious and wondering how she would eat and pay her bills, it was a surprise 150,000 UGX ($40) in her mobile account that accelerated her adaptation.

“Seeing this money in my account felt like I had been set free from an extremely dark prison,” Nyangoma said of the support from an anonymous donor with the American-based, Uganda Partners organization. “I could finally catch a breath, feel my blood freely flow and my brain finally thinking straight.”

Holding some cash helped Nyangoma realise an answer that had been there all along – making bags and neck accessories. It was a skill she discovered in Senior Six as she took seamstress classes with a local tailor. Mable Katusiime, an elderly street hawker who had products, a work ethic and a smile that belied her age, further inspired Nyangoma when they met in 2018. With craft bags over her shoulder and appearing affluent and educated, Mable told Nyangoma that she preferred this work to other options because it “kept her heart beating.”

Nyangoma bought one of Mable’s bags. She took it home to unstitch and re-stitch it to learn the secrets of quality and style. When Nyangoma wasn’t working in the UCU Communications and Marketing office, she was making bags on borrowed machines. She sold these as a second job for supplemental income until the COVID -19 lockdown forced her to make and sell more.

“I made a precise, clear budget on how I would use this money,” she said of that $40 donation. “Half of it, I used to buy craft making materials and the other for facilitation to and from Kisasi town where I could easily access a sewing machine.”

From Nyangoma’s creativity and skilful hands, varieties of colourful bags evolved and began selling but not without the obstacles typical for a “street hawker” – especially a female one. Taxi drivers shouted harsh words at her; strangers mocked her with loud laughs.

“Aaaaah… why have women of these days adopted a habit of running away from their husbands’ homes?” one man said. Another pointed at her and hooted, “Now she is carrying all her language like a street hawker.”

One barrier became a blessing. As she was forced to wait to board taxis that were more eager for passengers without a load of product as she had, she sold off some items to passers-by and truck drivers. Truck drivers became her best customers and marketing advisers who made referrals for additional sales. Nyangoma learned to throw bags through moving truck windows and pick up their tossed cash blowing in the wind.

First-time customers, appreciative of the beauty and durability of her work, referred more customers. Friends and family bought and made orders. The UCU community embraced and bought her products.

While the lockdown’s high transportation fees necessary for travel to the sewing room eat into her profits, Nyangoma sees a revenue light at the end of the tunnel. Her client growth is promising. Sales are getting her closer to owning a sewing machine. Nyangoma has created a brand name, Pauline’s Craft Workroom. With compelling photos of her products and satisfied customers, she uses her social media accounts as her showroom. She also displays her works at restaurants and shops.

Instead of business cards, she has created gratitude cards. To Nyangoma, gratitude – thanking people – is the most rewarding tool. It outgrows all marketing strategies. Her customers return the favour with praise. For example:

Phiona Atuhaire, a satisfied user of Pauline’s craftwork and a regular referral, says that she has continuously bought Nyangoma’s products because of their unique African touch and meticulous effort she puts into the quality. Atuhaire has also observed that Nyangoma is open to customer feedback and has made tremendous changes following advice from her clients.
Conrad Ochola, one of Nyangoma’s recent customers, admits to purchasing a craft bag because of its overall bold outlook. To Ochola, general outlook is second to quality.
Madrine Ayebare, one of Nyangoma’s clients, praised her for being a solution giver. She says: “I no longer get stuck while finding gifts for friends and relatives. When I am going to parties or visit friends, just a simple call to Pauline’s Craft workroom gets me exactly what I need.”

Seeing her products appreciated and functional with no clear indication when she might be recalled to her university position, Nyangoma has a vision of making clothing and teaching others after getting her own her sewing machine, to turn part of where she lives into a workshop and to make African clothing. If she gets recalled to her job at UCU, she will continue the business full-time or part-time.

Someday – maybe as early as 2021 – she may start a tailoring school to pass along her skill.

The writer of this article, Maxy Magella Abenaitwe, is a 2018 graduate of Uganda Christian University with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication. Before her country’s lockdown, she was an intern for the UCU Standard newspaper.

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Life lesson through roosters

July 15, 2020News#chickens, #contextual, #entrepreneurship, #MartinLwanga, #realworldlearning, #roosters, #UgandaChristianUniversity, business, UgandaPartnersPatty Huston-Holm

Uganda Christian University Dean of Business and Administration, Dr. Martin Lwanga, right, discusses education with Columbus (Ohio USA) State Community College President, Dr. David Harrison, in 2019. Both leaders believe strongly in teaching higher education in the context of the real world.

By Dr. Martin M. Lwanga

One day for an occasion I don’t recall in all detail, Dad’s deep voice boomed through the corridors of our Kampala, Uganda, neighborhood house. He wanted something. He commanded my brothers and me to chase a rooster for a meal. I think it was meant for a visitor but it could have been some big event coming up like Easter or Christmas. Not sure now but then and without waste, we set off for the kill.

Roosters are programmed to sense danger. As little chicks they grow up in the wings of their mothers. I was maybe seven years old, but still recall this hen that had a dozen chicks. Proud of her brood, the hen was constantly on the look out as she furrowed the ground.

We had quite a number of domesticated fowls at our place. Early in the morning the bolts would be released from their evening shelter, and off they would jump from the poles where they rested. After stretching they would start slowly picking up crumbs around the house and gradually move on.

Rarely would they be seen in the day. In the late evenings the troop would return, one by one, sometimes in pairs, but they all made it back, tummies filled, for the nights rest.

Once an old friend of Dad came from the village with a gift of a rooster. After the friend left, the rooster was added to the rest of the chickens who were already a tight knit group. Things didn’t go well that night. In the camp, there was already a big red rooster. Looks like he had fathered all the chicks in the stead. Big Papa didn’t like being upstaged. And here was a new kid on the block.

A terrible fight broke out. Although seemingly timid, when roosters start fighting, they will fight their souls out. In the end, we just slaughtered off the visitor and left Big Papa rooster to his territory.

So here was Dad telling us to chase and slaughter him, too! Chasing a rooster for a meal would tax even Usain Bolt, the famed Jamaican runner. Agile, the rooster led us around, here and there, flew up, danced, elbowed, ditched us, teased, dusted us off, until he ran out of steam and, my brother, who was hiding behind a pole, nabbed him.

The rebel was brought to the slaughterhouse and dumped on some banana leaves. All hands started plucking feathers off his neck. Once his neck was clean-shaven my elder brother handed me a knife to slice it off. What??! I shook my head. I was timid, and killing things did not bode well with me.

Quickly, my brother sliced off the neck without missing a beat. I looked on with tortured awe. I hated being a coward and knew next time I had to prove myself. The meal later was sumptuous.

You can learn a lot from such things. When the Europeans came to Uganda, they brought to us an institutionalized education with its pecking classroom order. There, as we discovered, you read about roosters in books, and soon after we were made to memorize answers for grades. No life experience.

However, long before in our societies, kids picked up lessons of life from the lives around them and chores tasked within those lives.

Going to the well was one such chore I saw back in the village. There was this spring well in my mother’s village; it was kept tidy by all. All kids walked down to the well. We came back gingerly holding to a bucket with a pot on the head, swinging a jerry can.

Sometimes you would play too hard at the well; by the time you got home, the parents were angry, and then got you a few fine lashes. Time keeping did not start yesterday.

In such an economy, you got to know the value of water as a scarce commodity. You also got to know about teamwork for you could not get everything all done by yourself. Cooperation with others was an essential way of life.

Back in the days, there was no clock for roosters who would wake up the entire household. Much as they seem to have tiny little heads, roosters never got lost in the neighborhood and always found their way safely back home. Interesting though was that not one hungry neighbor would nab what was not his for a secret meal. There was a communal fraternity that respected and defended individual property rights.

UCU students demonstrating product they created as part of their entrepreneurship studies.

Our society has progressed, so to say, to a point where an average urban middle class kid might wonder how a chicken gets to his plate, since it comes already dressed from the downtown supermarket. He will not have seen the economy of these birds and how knowledge is not limited to only humans. He will be so full of himself, as expected.

He won’t learn the art of grasping a knife and slicing off the head of a chicken for a meal, which in his new world borders on animal cruelty. The things that run life have all been carved out for him, like running water in a house, being ferried to school, all chores removed from him.

But in this protected life he is also missing out on the real life out there, messy and sometimes ugly as real life is. Sooner or later, he will come face to face with that life. Perhaps our old way of upkeep – of learning by doing as young children – was not that bad.

(Dr. Martin M. Lwanga is Dean for the Uganda Christian University Faculty of Business and Administration, which stepped up its use of real-world learning in the curriculum in recent years – an education strategy promoted even more in discussions during the Uganda COVID-19 lockdown.)

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‘Choose to see the good in the bad thing’

June 14, 2020COVID-19, Students: #socialwork, #coronavirus, #COVID19, #cowhooves, #entrepreneurship, #Lockdown, #prayer, #UgandaChristianUniversity, Gulu, UCU, UCUPartners, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

A crowd under Ojok's exercise instruction after the MTN marathon last year — A crowd under Ojok’s exercise instruction after the MTN marathon last year

By Maxy Magella Abenaitwe

For most Ugandans, the COVID-19 lockdown has been a financially painful time of watch and see. The presidential speeches have been a wave of hope whose flap never settles. Lives have come to a standstill.

For a few, however, it has been a time of growth and development.

Denish Ojok, a second-year Social Work student at Uganda Christian University (UCU), is among those few. Being alone since childhood presented him many challenges to sail through storms at their worst. The lockdown with the inability to attend UCU classes was yet another to overcome. For Denish, of Gulu, the answers came through food, fitness and market deliveries with a bit of radio inspiration on the side.

Income from his Rock of Ages fitness club helped pay his tuition. When the club was shut down through government orders, he moved workouts online. Clients subscribed at a daily fee of 80 cents (Shs.3000), accessing exercise through such platforms as Go to Meeting and Facebook.

Ojok preparing a traditional dish for delivery

Realizing this wasn’t enough, he thought about how his other skills could be used. Ojok, who is good at boiling a cow hooves, started making door-step deliveries of a much-prized dish known as Mulokoni. Most days, this brought Ojok a minimum of $9 profit.

Ojok’s third idea related to helping people obtain food when they weren’t allowed to travel. With the suspension of public and private means of transport but allowance of motorcycle deliveries, he took orders and made deliveries of sugar, rice and other market goods. Business was so good that he was able to employ a handful of youth to help him.

This voice of hope – one that resonates with biblical scripture – has been echoed by Ojok on Rupiny FM radio. His encouraging words on youth radio talk shows are about growth during a pandemic, thinking “beyond the nose” in a positive way to overcome circumstances, and continuing good sanitation habits after the COVID-19 virus is controlled. Such habits as handwashing will solve other problems such as diarrhea, he said.

“Exercise financial discipline, spend less and learn to cope with any condition that comes your way,” the 24-year-old student entrepreneur said. “Choose to see the good in the bad thing. Stay positive.”

Despite the great work progress, Ojok is dissatisfied with the fact that a large portion of his potential clients are unable to access his services due lack of communications through smart phones and the Internet. This is a circumstance he is working to resolve.

Much as the lockdown has kept him away from people who inspire his spiritual journey, Ojok has disciplined himself to read and understand scriptures. Before he does anything he prays, as inspired by his UCU lecturer, Peter Nareba, who begins every lecture with prayer.

Ojok plans to maintain his online business after the lockdown. He believes post lockdown will be an era of innovations since it was a shock that left the world with so much to learn, think about and take action.

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