Residents of Masese Village in Uganda reap significant benefits from the Evangelising Sisters of Mary

Undoubtedly, the catholic sisters have played a pivotal role in fostering development across Africa and the global South, earning commendation for their contributions to individual and societal development. As a significant stakeholder in pursuing growth, sisters’ impact extends beyond Africa to the broader international community. Throughout Africa, the sisters manage many facilities and diverse social ministries. They tirelessly dedicate themselves to maintaining the social ministries as a path to spread their evangelism. While many of these sisters possess adequate education, many still need essential management and entrepreneurial skills, leading to challenges in their engagement and mission assignments. This deficiency in skills hampers the sustainability of social ministries, making them prone to financial losses and operational unsustainability.

To fill this gap, Strathmore Business School, in partnership with the Association of Consecrated Women in Eastern and Central Africa (ACWECA), is training sisters in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia in ways to transform their social ministries into sustainable social enterprises through the Sisters’ Blended value Project (SBVP); a project that is generously funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

In Uganda, the SBVP has proven to be a beacon of empowerment for the Evangelising Sisters of Mary. After participating in Social Enterprise Programme training in 2022, these sisters gained invaluable skills and insights that helped them make their social enterprises sustainable and help solve the community’s social problems. Sister Veronica from the Congregation of the Evangelizing Sisters of Mary spearheaded a dairy farm initiative after the training. Initially envisioned to support sick and elderly sisters, the project quickly expanded to benefit the wider community. The dairy farm addressed the prevalent issue of adulterated milk in the market. Today, the sisters´ dairy farm supplies locals with fresh, quality milk and is expanding to meet the market demand.

Sister Marybennet Nachimira, who oversees the host room, fully utilized the SBVP-acquired skills in marketing by exploring various marketing strategies. She successfully increased the number of her customers, thereby widening the market for her products. Sister Veronica Bilibawa went further to share the skills she learned from the SBVP with the community. She organized Karamajong women from local the Masese village in groups and taught them how to become sustainable by starting and running small businesses using locally available products that would earn them an income. She  further trained these women groups to save the little they get from their income to secure their future.

The congregation also received the seed grant coursety of SBVP, which has been instrumental in the sisters’ journey of evangelisation and towards the sustainability of their social enterprises. They plan to use the funds to establish a demonstration farm and a silage house. SBVP has a far-reaching impact on the sisters’ run facilities and business. The mission of SBVP is to ensure sustainable growth for the sisters’ enterprises and continuous community development that are in tandem with charism of the different congregations under its umbrella.