Every time I am asked to write something about Grow With Us, I am always lost for words, what to say, how to say it and when to say it but let me try give you a glimpse into this program that for the longest time was only an idea, until the leap of faith was taken, to start to begin, to do it.
Grow With Us is an entrepreneurial fellowship built on the foundation of economic justice that equip young African girls on their journey as social entrepreneurs. This fellowship offers them a 12-month curriculum with different mentors on different subjects such as studying the market, networking, fundraising, day to day business/project operations management, and more. The mission is to make sure young African women have all the resources needed to access economic power and financial independence
Grow With us homes women and non binary persons who are looking for a space to meet like minded people for community & knowledge exchange. We have a cohort in session and two cohorts that have finalized their Fellowship some of whom will be joining us for the Bootcamp as from the 6th of May 2021. So far we have mentored and nurtured women across 16 African countries and by the end of this year that number will go up to 23 African countries.
Looking back the journey to this place, this point where we can afford the Boootcamp is only but a dream come true, for the past two years we have been surviving with no funds, just a dream and a community.
The community of mentors, volunteers and the entire team at Choose Yourself who have given their time, their resources to ensure that we get a step closer to our mission, goal and purpose. We don’t take that for granted.
With this Bootcamp we form our first cohort of Alumni. I am personally looking forward to putting a face to the voices I have grown so accustomed to, I am looking forward to celebrating these young women and also funding one of their projects as selected by the judges.
Having been part of the 2 year pilot program, I am hopeful that through this Bootcamp, the Fellows will be able to hone their pitching skills as they will be taken through a brief crash course on effectively pitching their projects and one of them will walk away with some seed funding. We intend to invest in our fellows and they will hopefully pay it forward to the next cohorts of GWU Fellows.
I would like them to leave Lusaka with a new sense of direction for themselves and their projects which I believe will be achieved by the several sessions with their mentors in attendance as well as an opportunity to have a one on one with their peers in the two cohorts we have had so far. The mentors sessions will cover a panel discussion covering the basics of incorporating feminist ideals into your enterprise, leveraging digital strategy as well as personal development for the budding entrepreneurs.
I am looking forward to sitting with the incredible mentors who have been monumental to getting to this point, saying thank you in person and toasting to a better future.
I am excited about seeing the Choose Yourself Team, all of whom have been at the frontline of putting all of this together from the start to this new beginning. I want to dance, drink wine, relax with them, reflect on the last two years and draw lessons from it as we admit that we all did this, to that point. It was only possible because of all them, all of us.
This Bootcamp signifies endless possibilities for this program, as we hope to reach more African women and gender non conforming persons we will be telling them that it is possible to create something out of nothing, have it be impactful by just dreaming. This is a dream come true for all of us and as we teach how to build, we will be borrowing from experience.
These women are a testament to the African continent we are building, one that is built by women for women.
We did it
Mumbe Carole
GWU Program Director
