Meet Aisha Bakar Makungu, a 29-year-old HerStart Catalyst Fund recipient, who grew up in Bweleo, a rural seaweed farming community in Zanzibar, Tanzania. YCI’s HerStart Innovate the Future program was an exciting opportunity for Aisha to use her skills to solve one of the most pressing issues facing youth in her community: unemployment. With encouragement from her family and support from the HerStart program, Aisha says she became much more confident and empowered to continue to grow her business. She is excited to impact the lives of people in her community by educating them on the valuable uses of seaweed, providing high quality products and creating employment opportunities for even more youth.
In Tanzania, where people under the age of 35 comprise 61% of the population, youth unemployment is a major challenge, especially for young women. Despite recent improvements in education and increased economic growth, decent employment with the ability to alleviate poverty is not yet widely accessible. Adding to these challenges, women also often face gendered obstacles to employment, including lower access to education and challenging social norms that burden women with household duties and make work outside the home a challenge.
Statistics compiled by UNWomen on Zanzibar’s progress towards the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also point to greater disadvantages for women, particularly young women, when it comes to economic and wellbeing outcomes. In Zanzibar, women are twice as likely to be unemployed than men, much more likely to be engaged in informal employment and very frequently are subjects of child marriages (1 in 3 women in Tanzania are married before the age of 18). These challenges compound to make women’s economic empowerment a major challenge.
Youth unemployment across Tanzania is an issue with various drivers, including a lack of access to quality education and business resources. The HerStart program is combating both of these issues by providing training, mentorship and seed grants for young women with the goal of participants becoming successful social entrepreneurs who are self-employed leaders in their communities.
“HerStart helped me feel empowered. It helped me to become more confident and stand freely in front of people and talk about my business and the products I produce.”
– Aisha Bakar Makungu
The HerStart program consists of three distinct phases. First, young women are trained in foundational entrepreneurship skills, financial management, personal leadership and social impact. Next, selected social enterprises are incubated with access to business development services, coaching and leadership training for entrepreneurs. At the final stage, entrepreneurs can apply for the HerStart Catalyst Fund, where they can receive seed funding, coaching and mentorship to implement businesses with measurable positive community impact. Through the HerStart training program, young women, like Aisha, are set up to successfully launch or scale their very own social enterprise.
With the support of her family, Aisha took the opportunity to join the HerStart program and begin her journey as a social entrepreneur. She set the ambitious but realistic goal of becoming self-employed and one day employing other young people in her community. Before participating in HerStart, Aisha had never imagined that one day she would run her own business and be seen as leader in her community.
Since joining HerStart Innovate the Future and completing all three phases of the program, Aisha launched her sustainable seaweed company, developing innovative health and beauty products from natural and organic materials. Her exposure to seaweed farming from a young age helped her identify opportunities to make unique value-added agricultural products. This has allowed her to capitalize on seaweed, an abundant natural resource in Zanzibar, to make her own products that appeal to a wide audience.
Aisha received $2,000 through the HerStart Catalyst Fund to grow her enterprise, which she used to register her business name, buy raw materials and pay for opportunities to promote her products, like hosting booths at markets. Aisha had a broad network of support throughout the entire experience; she was mentored by a local entrepreneur, coached by YCI Tanzania staff and collaborated with Canadian volunteers who were part of the HerStart International Fellowship program. This tight knit community of support was committed to ensuring Aisha was confident in herself and her business abilities.
Aisha largely reaches customers by advertising her products on social media and has built partnerships with several local shops. By receiving the HerStart Catalyst Fund and participating in the Grow Your Social Venture (GROW) phase of the program, Aisha said that she was able to increase her access to markets, expand her network and improve her financial literacy. By the end of the program, she was even able to save three million TSh (approximately $1700 CAD) to reinvest into her business.
“The accomplishment that I’m proud of firstly, I know how to run the business. I also understand the difference between normal and social businesses. I’m so proud of owning my business which enables me to get a high income without depending on anyone and helping my family. That is what I am most proud of.“
– Aisha Bakar Makungu
YCI’s HerStart program is striving to alleviate unemployment for women in Zanzibar by increasing access to the skills and resources necessary to start social businesses. This avenue provides young women, who are often disadvantaged in the formal economy, the opportunity to gain a steady income through self-employment. Once their businesses are established, young women often hire other young women in their communities as well to help with business management, production and other activities.
For Aisha, she hopes to continue to grow her business by purchasing seaweed processing machines and employing more youth from her community to help her with day-to-day business activities and production. By hiring young people, Aisha hopes to help alleviate the problem of youth unemployment in her community. She also hopes that by teaching young people about the value of seaweed, they can also see it as more than just a marine algae, but rather a powerful product that can be an innovative source of income and positive community impact.
By propelling the economic empowerment of young women, HerStart contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly #5 (Gender Equality) and #8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). Small businesses like Aisha’s have huge impact.
Are you ready to join YCI and collaborate with dynamic entrepreneurs like Aisha? Learn more about YCI’s HerStart Fellowships for Canadians to volunteer in Tanzania, Ghana or Uganda.