Impact Stories
Stories of Enterprise and Resilience
Behind every small business is a woman working to build a better future for her family. Across rural Uganda, women are turning skills, determination and opportunity into sustainable livelihoods. These are the stories of the entrepreneurs HOHA is helping move forward.
Entrepreneur Spotlight
Lydia
Lydia, a young mother from a remote village in Eastern Uganda, once dreamed of being a teacher. Family hardship forced her to drop out of school but she learned to braid hair and began a small business washing and braiding hair in her community. She had a skill and a small business but no savings to grow.
Through Hands of Hope Africa, she received skills training, joined a savings group, and was given a start-up capital to grow her salon in the village center.
Lydia now uses her success to hire and train other young women in her village, sharing the skills that helped move her forward.
Entrepreneur Spotlight
Agnes
Agnes is a single mother of seven, raising her children in a one-room home without electricity or running water. Having never had the opportunity to attend school, she faced limited opportunities to earn a sustainable income.
Through a savings group established by Hands of Hope Africa in her village, Agnes joined other women in the programme to start a pig farm, pooling their resources to build a business together. She is also learning to write, keep inventory records and manage the business’s finances.
Her story is one of remarkable resilience, showing how access to opportunity and practical support can help women build a better future for themselves and their families.
Entrepreneur Spotlight
Sylvia
Sylvia was splitting and selling firewood to support her family. She kept the firewood in her home to sell to neighbors and restaurants.
When local factories offered her the ooportunity to supply them, she could not afford the stock needed to fulfill their orders. The bank would not lend to her without her husband’s involvement.
Hands of Hope Africa gave Sylvia flexible working capital to meet this demand. She has since grown from selling small bundles from her home to supplying factories across her town, moving around six truckloads of firewood each week.
Entrepreneur Spotlight
Carol
Carol was already earning a living sewing clothes and making repairs for people in her village. But without the capital to purchase fabric upfront, she was limited to customers who could supply their own materials, often missing opportunities for larger orders.
Through our programme, Carol gained access to fair, flexible working capital to purchase fabric ahead of the busy school-uniform season, allowing her to take on more orders and expand her customer base. Her story shows how access to capital can unlock the potential of a business that already exists, helping women turn their skills into more sustainable sources of income.
Our Programme Updates
This December edition brings together stories from the field in Uganda alongside findings from community-led research designed to better understand local needs, lived realities, and aspirations. Inside, we share recent program updates, reflections from community members, and insights drawn from data that is helping guide our approach to sustainable, locally informed impact.
Published: 30 December 2025
Our January edition reflects on a month marked by national elections and the disruptions that followed, including power outages and communication shutdowns that directly affects work on the ground. We share what this period revealed about daily life for the women we serve, from housing and food insecurity to the resilience required to run a small business in uncertain conditions. Inside, you’ll find updates from our monthly gatherings, where women continue learning from one another, and read a powerful testimony of growth and renewed hope.
Published: 31 January 2026
Our February edition looks at how skills and opportunity can spread beyond one entrepreneur and into the wider community. We share highlights from a special monthly gathering where women invited friends from their communities to learn practical skills in soap making, bookkeeping, and marketing. We also explore why access to small amounts of capital matters for women-owned businesses and celebrate one of our entrepreneurs as the first recipient of our Monthly Business Growth Award following the expansion of her firewood business.
Published: 28 February 2026
Published: 20 April 2026
