To start our entrepreneurship program Bizz Girls, we conducted a pilot test in 2016. Participants
were our girls from Primary and Junior High School. Girls scanned the Berekuso environment
and wrote down all problems they could see. In all, they came up with five opportunities
representing 3 industries; education, sanitation and fashion.
For the education team, they realized school children in Berekuso lacked books to study and also
were being disturbed at home therefore needed a place to learn and concentrate. After
brainstorming, their solution was to create a serene space for Berekuso school children filled
with learning materials.
Another team realized there was so much filth in Berekuso so decided to work on it. Their solution to the problem was to first of all pay people for collecting sachet water and also use the plastics for making jewellery for sale.
The pilot program proved successful. Girls were able to identify problems, turn them into
opportunities and develop solutions through research. However, they were unable to start the
business since they were still in basic school and lacked the grit for such challenge. Most
importantly, the necessary resources were not available to enable them make such a commitment.
Even though the Bowney team brought into reality the solution developed by the education team,
moving forward our BizzGirls program will be more focused on vocational training since
majority of girls are talented in that field. However, if we are to run an entrepreneurship
program, it would be targeted at Senior High School graduates who are highly self-motivated.