Lonah is one of thousands of girls in Uganda who are gaining business, livelihood, and life skills. On World Youth Skills Day, discover how she’s using these new skills to build a business and rewrite her future.

BY SARAH ALLEN

At just 21 years old, Lonah is a mother, small business owner, and the breadwinner of her family. Her family of three — herself, her spouse, and her baby, Verena, just seven months old — lives in Luwero, Uganda, where they rent a modest home. 

Lonah moved to Luwero from northern Uganda in late 2020, and when she first arrived, she felt isolated. As an outsider coming to a new place amid a pandemic, she didn’t have any friends in her community. 

She also had no income of her own: she primarily spent her time caring for the home, while her husband sold pineapples in the local market.

But last year, everything changed when she joined a youth empowerment club with other young women in her community. 

“My friends almost doubled!” she shared gleefully. Lonah made many new friends and, importantly, gained a community of young women her age facing similar experiences. 

Each Friday at 3:00, Lonah would walk to the clubhouse in her community, just a few steps away from her home. At the time, she was already pregnant with Verena.

The club became a safe space for Lonah amid her peers and a near-peer mentor, many of whom were pregnant or had young children, too. They sang songs, danced, socialized, and learned about critical topics like sexual and reproductive health and gender rights.

“There are teachings as women that we are usually told. But in the clubs, we learned all about topics like family planning, balanced diets, and child abuse.”

The girls also learned about budgeting, saving, and entrepreneurship. Lonah, who had always been interested in fashion, was interested in becoming a tailor: so BRAC connected her with a vocational training program to learn sewing. She also gained a critical tool to launch her business.

“I got this sewing machine here from BRAC; something I never imagined getting in my life,” she shared while beaming at her prized possession.

Lonah is just one of over 70,000 girls who participated in the program last year — Mastercard Foundation Accelerating Impact for Young Women (AIM) in partnership with BRAC — and this year, another 200,000 girls joined her. By the program’s end, nearly a million more adolescent girls and young women ages 12-34 will gain life skills and age-appropriate entrepreneurship and employment opportunities.

Since participating in the tailoring training, Lonah’s business has taken off. She has begun to attract more customers, and she is receiving plenty of custom orders. Her tailoring business has become her family’s main source of income. 

“My quality of life has changed. I am also saving even more than I used to save last year.” 

Lonah’s family is no longer on a restrictive diet: They can buy all the nutritious food they need. “Before, I used to buy smaller food, which my family shared once a day. Now, sometimes I eat and I almost feel like dying because I am so full!” 

Running a business while caring for her household and family is challenging: Lonah’s long day starts with caring for her daughter and preparing food for breakfast and lunch while her husband goes to work. Then she pulls out her sewing machine. On a typical day, she sews clothes until dinner time, making about three children’s dresses or one and a half shirts or dresses for adults. Finally, she prepares dinner, cleans the home, bathes her daughter, and puts her to bed.

Lonah describes herself as a people pleaser: She loves to do things for others, including her family and friends. “I am working so hard so that I can have my own home and so that my child can be happy.”

But she still makes time for fun: “Once everything is done at work, if I want to be happy, I like to go and visit friends and we love to eat, drink, and have fun together.”

Lonah is determined to expand her business. One challenge she’s facing as a new business owner is limited capital. So far, she has completely bootstrapped her business without significant investment capital beyond the money she has diligently saved. 

But as her business grows, her needs are changing. Sometimes, when customers come to place an order, she does not have the color of fabric they want in stock, but she has already invested her money into other fabrics. She is excited to take a loan from BRAC’s affordable microloan offerings so that she can stock more fabrics, attract more customers, and take on more orders. 

Lonah also wants to rent a larger home or a separate room to accommodate her growing business. Currently, she sews right outside of her rented home, because there’s not enough space inside for her to sew with her machine. When the sun is hot or the rain is pouring, she is forced to work through it, or lose out on valuable hours of work. 

She dreams of having a storefront where customers can all come in and shop, and where she can work indoors no matter the weather. She’s already a fashion designer, but she wants to continue allowing her creativity to flourish and become a fashion inspiration for others. “I want to be a fashion designer, so that I can even dress brides and grooms!”

Although Lonah and her peers have graduated from their local AIM club, she continues to keep in touch with the girls who have become her closest friends. Her business is continuing to expand, and Lonah continues to set aside more money each week to save for her goals. She has even doubled her savings rate since graduating from the AIM program!

“I want to keep some money so that when my daughter starts going to school, I have the money,” Lonah said. “I also don’t want to be renting: I want to build a home for my family by the time she starts school.”

Lonah is well on track to achieve her dreams.

Young people like Lonah are full of potential: They just need the opportunity to realize it. Join us in helping youth like Lonah build skills to power their futures.

Sarah Allen is Communications Manager at BRAC USA.