Economic Growth South Sudan Project #69594

Ignite Change: Uplift African Women Entrepreneurs

by Business for Better Society

Project Report | Oct 13, 2025
A New Chapter for Women Entrepreneurs in Malawi

By Kelly Brantner | CEO

Participants During a SBS Learning Module

In the rural communities of Blantyre District, Malawi, 35 young women are showing what empowerment truly looks like. Through the Microbusiness Incubator, these women are turning their ideas into real businesses, and their determination into lasting impact.

A Community-Led Start

The incubator launched in the Lunzu and Chileka areas of Blantyre with a clear goal to support marginalised women aged 18–30, many of whom are single mothers, survivors of gender-based violence, or caregivers for children with disabilities.

From the very beginning, this program was built with the community, not just for it. Our local nonprofit partner, CHICOSUDO, worked closely with traditional leaders, health workers, and local stakeholders to identify women most in need and ready to take part. This participatory process ensured strong local ownership and gave each participant a support network that extends far beyond the training room.

A baseline survey revealed that 70% of participants had no ability to save, relying instead on small informal income sources. Yet their ambition to become entrepreneurs was clear. The incubator gave them that opportunity.

Learning That Feels Real

Using the Street Business School curriculum, training sessions are practical, participatory, and rooted in daily realities. The women learn to identify viable business ideas, plan financially, understand their markets, and most importantly believe in their own potential.

Because collaboration works best in this setting, participants formed three group enterprises:

Pepper Processing and Branding: 15 women are adding value to locally grown peppers, creating a branded, market-ready product.
Eco-Friendly Shopping Bags: 5 women are producing reusable fabric bags to reduce plastic waste while earning income from their tailoring skills.
Soap Making: Another 15 women are creating household soap for local markets. As one participant shared, “Soap is something every household needs. By producing it as a group and selling individually, we can grow our savings and start new businesses.”

Building Skills, Confidence, and Community Support

The women are already putting their new skills to work by producing, testing local markets, and building savings through Village Savings and Loan (VSL) groups. Traditional leaders have praised the program for arriving “at the right time,” while health workers report seeing greater confidence, stronger community ties, and a renewed sense of purpose among participants.

Looking Ahead

Following the successful launches of the South Sudan and Malawi Microbusiness Incubators, our focus will now turn to advancing our DRC documentary program, which highlights powerful stories of resilience, creativity, and hope from eastern Congo.

Thank you for your generosity, which has helped create new paths to independence and dignity... and the journey continues.

Making the Pepper Sauce

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Aug 28, 2025
Stronger Together: Women in Business

By Kelly Brantner | CEO

Introducing The Bor Program Participants

The Business for Better Society (BBS) microbusiness incubator for women continues to grow, with program launches in South Sudan and Malawi. In this report, we're excited to highlight the incubator in Bor, South Sudan, sharing program adjustments shaped by participant feedback and tailored to the local context.

A key distinction from the Kenya-based incubator is Bor’s focus on the fishing sector, an industry vital to South Sudan’s economy and a source of livelihood for more than 1.7 million people. By centring on fishing, the incubator not only creates a pathway to sustainable income and food security but also opens doors for women who have long been excluded from this sector. Equally important, participant feedback led to a shift from individual enterprises to three women’s group, containing five women each, fostering mutual support and shared leadership. Together, these changes strengthen women’s economic independence and amplify their collective voice within the community, underscoring our commitment to context-specific, community-driven solutions.

All participants receive dual-track training with financial literacy workshops and the Street Business School program. Delivered by our local nonprofit partner, SPEAK Uganda, this approach ensures participants develop both technical knowledge and financial acumen for long-term business success.

A revolving micro-capital loan system provides startup funding to each women’s group for the start-up business requirements, with the loan rotating to the next group after a fixed period. This sustainable financing model builds participants’ understanding of loan management while allowing the program to support more women over time.

Leadership development is another key component. Each group elects a Group Leader, Treasurer, and Secretary, creating formal roles that build confidence and accountability. By coordinating group activities, managing finances, facilitating meetings, and preparing progress reports, participants gain practical leadership experience, transforming them into confident community leaders with transferable skills for future initiatives.

The incubator participants come from clans with long histories of conflict, yet their collaboration in shared economic activities builds trust, support, and social healing, showing how targeted development can address multiple community needs at once.

This launch in South Sudan reflects our commitment to adaptive, community-driven development that meets urgent needs while building long-term resilience. By linking economic empowerment with conflict resolution and focusing on a vital local industry, we are creating a model that can be scaled across the region.

In our next update, we will share progress on the Malawi expansion and its unique opportunities and challenges. Until then, we extend heartfelt thanks to our donors because your support enables us to break the cycle of generational poverty and create meaningful opportunities for some of the most vulnerable women in the various communities we serve.

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