Sierra Leone has an incredibly high unemployment rate, with many young people out of work. Young mothers, because of the stigma they face and the fact that many were unable to complete their education, fare especially poorly in the jobs market. Less than half of the girls we work with have a means of earning an income. Of those that do – by, for instance, working for their friends and family or selling food – the amount they receive is about a tenth of what they need to cover their own and their child’s basic needs.

To address this problem, we piloted an initiative - Bo Mothers Mean Business - to help six young mothers start up their own business, in order to financially support themselves and improve their standing in the community. By providing them with financial literacy and business training, and a grant of 200,00 leones (the equivalent of £14.50), these young mothers were able to start their own enterprises selling items like cosmetics, soap, wood, and cooked meals.

Katumu, one of the girls involved in the pilot project who became pregnant at 16, was living hand to mouth, earning what she could by carrying loads of sand at a sand mine. The AdAmi Project helped Katumu return to school in September 2018, but without a sustainable income, she and her son often went hungry. So a few months later, Katumu was supported through Bo Mothers Mean Business to start a petty trading business alongside her schooling. She used the grant to buy beauty products which she could sell, and her business soon grew thanks to her hardwork and go-getter personality.

Thanks to the project, Katumu is now running a successful business selling cosmetics

Katumu is using the income to not only buy essentials for herself and her son but also paid for additional classes over the school holidays to help her realise her dream of training to become a nurse. The rewards of her hard work have not been solely financial: having been taunted and stigmatised by other members of the community, Katumu now talks proudly about how she is admired by others as a businesswoman.

The local team meeting with the girls to plan their businesses

On the back of the success of the pilot, we have begun to roll out Bo Mothers Mean Business to all the young mothers enrolled in the AdAmi Project. When we surveyed 41 girls last March about what they would need to be able to set up and run their own business, 95% said business training, 90% said money to get an enterprise up and running, three quarters said support in managing their money, and nearly half said support from their family. Based on these findings, we have designed the programme to consist of four main steps:

Building business knowledge and skills - through a series of entrepreneurship and business management training sessions we help the girls develop the skills to run and grow their businesses
Start-up capital - a small grant is given to each of the girls to help set up their business (for example, to purchase supplies)
Mentoring - the girl is matched with a specially trained female mentor who they will meet one on one every week for six months to help the girls overcome any challenges they face, stay motivated, and meet their business goals. These mentoring relationships help build the girls’ confidence – which nearly three quarters of the girls we surveyed said was a barrier to setting up their own business - and provide important moral support
Small savings programme - we help the girls to create a simple savings plan, and encourage them to put aside a small amount each month. This enables them to cope in future emergencies or go towards investing in their future, like Katumu’s extra classes

The ability to earn their own money and become financially independent is invaluable. It enables the girls to have a greater sense of control over their lives, gains the respect of their families and peers, and builds confidence in their future. We can’t wait to see both them and their businesses grow over the next few months!

Bo Mothers Mean Business!