Happy Holidays from KinoSol! We hope your decade is coming to a close in the best way possible! The KinoSol team has some great plans for our holiday season, including lots of hot cocoa, sugar cookies, and candy canes (don’t tell my dentist!). But in the midst of the holiday season, it’s easy to forget the bigger picture behind our celebrations. We forget how blessed we are. For that reason, this post is taking a trip down memory lane to one of the coolest things our students got to experience in Uganda.
Meet Jane. She is a mother of four, a business owner, a master’s student, and a women’s group leader. She spends her time juggling bead making, housekeeping, and traveling every weekend over 15 hours to attend college classes. Now if Jane’s busy schedule wasn’t enough, she also leads a group of women entrepreneurs who have the goal of keeping young girls in school. According to research, almost half of young girls drop out before they finish primary school. This women’s group (as we will call it) took out a loan over a year ago to fund supplies and fees that many families cannot afford for their daughters’ education. This allowed many young girls to continue in their education when they would otherwise have been unable.
The women’s group creates handmade purses, bracelets, and tote bags to sell in Jane’s shop in Kasese. The funds go toward paying back the loan while keeping more young ladies in class. Our students got to meet with the women’s group in hopes of brainstorming ways to expand their market, increase revenue, and discover ways to better repay their loan.
This meeting was so much more of a success than either party could have hoped for. Kasese is a small African town parked right outside Queen Elizabeth’s National Park. The students proposed that the women’s group sell their products to visiting safari tourists instead of locals. This would allow them to charge more for handmade items and share their stories with new people every day. The women’s group walked away filled with hope for achieving their goals. The students walked away knowing just how great of an impact they had made during their time in Africa.
Stories like this help us remember the meaning of the holiday season. It’s not about candy canes or hot cocoa. It’s about hope and positively impacting the lives of people around us. So remember to share the love this holiday season with family, friends, and complete strangers. As always, please contact us with questions or feedback for the KinoSol team! Signing off and wishing you a Happy Holidays from KinoSol!
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