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Adolescent Gate OrganizationAdolescent Gate OrganizationAdolescent Gate Organization
District Ilemela, Ward Kiseke
+255 678 101 651
9:00 am - 07.00pm

The Maisha Salama Success Story: Empowering Adolescent Girls and Young Mothers Through Entrepreneurship.

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Maisha Salama Group
SUCCESS STORY

Maisha Salama is a group of ten girls and young mothers from Nyashana who are out of school, aged between 16 to 18 years old. These girls and young mothers were recruited to join the program in late 2022 when the Adolescent Gate Organization started the Maisha Salama Project. Most of these young mothers dropped out of school due to several reasons, including poverty and early pregnancy. This group faces several challenges, as was recorded and observed during the identification process. There are no social and economic initiatives in place targeting to support this group after they have dropped out or left school due to the mentioned factors. As a result, these adolescent girls and young mothers are left with no option to support themselves in this situation, hence putting their lives at risk.

During the identified period of one year, the adolescent girls and young mothers managed to gain self-esteem and practice different activities that helped them to build life skills and knowledge on issues related to power, as well as entrepreneurship skills such as soap and bead making. This was done to empower the girls to become economically independent, and their participation in income-generating activities has enabled both individuals and the group to improve their income. After several sessions, the trained girls and young mothers out of school started to engage in small businesses such as vegetable selling, and some were able to nurture their businesses by opening small cafeterias at their centers. In these cafeterias, they are now selling food, snacks, and soft drinks.

Despite conducting business as a group, each individual has a separate business where they sell fish, small fish, firewood, vegetables, and snacks. Through these businesses, the girls have managed to generate profits. For example, the highest profit is 10,000 Tshs and the lowest profit is 6,000 Tshs per day. This has helped them to cover some individuals’ basic needs and support their children, and it has also helped to improve their self-esteem and knowledge of entrepreneurship skills.

“For the past few years before, I wasn’t serious about business, but after becoming a member of the group, I found myself becoming more interested in business. Currently, I am doing a small fish business which supports me in getting my needs, but before, I had no business which could support me to earn income,” said Elizabeth.

“Before becoming a member of the Maisha Salama group, I did not have any income to sustain my life. Life was very hard for me, and I was unhappy, but now I am very happy because I have a business that I started through the provided startup capital I benefited from the group. Currently, I am doing a fish business and I get profit, and I can get basic needs for me and my child,” said Eliza John.