The Rise of A Jelly-Making Enterprise

Asante Africa Foundation club members from St.Martia Mulumba Secondary School in Uganda, discovered the potential of a marketable commodity in their community: Jelly. This particular jelly isn’t for peanut butter sandwiches, but a lotion applied for clearer and healthier skin. While this naturally sounds like a common resource widely available for many people in the West, jelly is a limited product at the student’s school and local community. Naturally, these entrepreneurial students decided to do the next best thing; manufacture it themselves. In collaboration with the organization Teach A Man To Fish, the secondary school students utilized their new found chemistry and entrepreneurship skills to produce and market their own self-made jelly products to their school and village. 

The student’s teacher guided their investment decisions, convincing them to initiate a budget to purchase the materials needed for manufacturing their product. Each member invested their own savings to fund the project, adding up to a total 17,000 shillings. Production did not get off to a smooth start, however. The team was limited by a lack of modern machinery, and they did not have the necessary capital to further expand their business outside of the local area. 

Despite their obstacles, the group experienced immediate success, making over 100,000 shillings from their school and community sales alone. The students still had limited resources, so they focused on improving their branding and increasing the production capacity to meet the demand of their fast-growing customer base. They quickly realized that in order to legitimize their business, they would need to get officially recognized and registered by the government. Once their business was formalized, financial institutions would be able to send the group loans for further stable financial support. 

The story of these student’s jelly-making enterprise is but one example of the transformative impact that youth entrepreneurship and innovation can bring to a local community. By utilizing their academic knowledge and entrepreneurial skills, the students created a profitable business, fulfilled their community’s demand for a specific commodity, and continue to grow and sustain their newfound venture. The club members are a shining example of how young leaders shape the future of their communities through their ingenuity, work to overcome difficult obstacles to their goals, and create positive change within their community and abroad.