BeadforLife
Creates sustainable opportunities for African women to lift their families out of poverty by connecting people worldwide in a circle of exchange that enriches everyone.
Luci Sheehan
P&G Alumni Sponsor
8 years P&G experience in Sales / CBD, North America (New England, Metro NY, Cincinnati); 1st female P&G District Manager
Luci’s work as a strategic consultant took her to Africa where she later became involved as a volunteer with BFL. Today Luci serves on BFL’s Professional Women’s Advisory Committee and is a personal donor. She also launched the Professional Business Women’s program in Jan 2017 connecting American & Ugandan business women for mentorship.
“It is particularly meaningful for me to utilize my knowledge and experience from P&G and my business career to help women who truly can be lifted out of poverty with BFL’s self-employment training programs.” ~ Luci Sheehan
Established in Uganda in 2004, BeadforLife created a global market for jewelry made from recycled paper. Given early success, BFL saw theincreased need for better business training and started its Street Business School – giving its members key skills to better manage their businesses and increase their sales. Through jewelry making and its Street Business School, BFL has positively impacted the lives of more than 46,000 Ugandans and created economic well-being and financial independence for over 15,250 people in 2,100 households through training and employment.
To learn more about BeadforLife, click here to visit their website.
In 2010, BFL created the Street Business School (SBS) – to provide practical business skills education and one-on-one mentoring to help women start and grow small business to lift their families out of poverty. With a success model in hand, SBS was scaled and with the help of a 2016 P&G Alumni Foundation grant of $10,000, drove BFL’s innovative social franchise structure to train two other NGOs to adapt and implement SBS in their local communities.
PeaceJam, an organization established by 14 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, named BeadforLife’s SBS the “Best Nonprofit of the Year” in its 2017 Billion Acts Hero Awards.
“I thank BFL coaches because I am a different person. I am what I am today because of you, coaches!” Umazi Riziki, SBS graduate & successful entrepreneur
The P&G Alumni Foundation grant of $25,000 will enable BFL to expand the SBS program to southern and western Africa, recruiting and training global catalyst partners — including SBS immersion training workshops, subsequent 12-month coaching support implementation, and sharing best practices. The plan envisions training 1,760 women entrepreneurs resulting in 1,510 women employed.
“From Struggling Mom to Thriving Entrepreneur”
Maureen, the sole breadwinner and mom of five, school-aged sons, was living in poverty. She was only able to feed her children one meal a day and they were not regularly attending school. Maureen attended SBS and learned how to start a successful business. Today Maureen is thriving! She runs successful washing, cassava (root vegetable) and chapatti (flatbread) businesses, and all her children are in school. Maureen’s income has increased significantly from scrapping together 1,500 UGX (barely $.50) to start her business to earning 400,000 UGX ($110) per month in less than six months. Maureen’s confidence and her family’s financial independence has significantly increased.
