Teaching Entrepreneurship at the Refugee Camp

One of the nice things about our Peace Corps assignments is that we are expected to look for secondary projects outside of our main work assignment. As a District Community Liaison in Sowa, there is an even greater expectation that I find secondary projects in and outside of Sowa. Right now my main secondary project and most rewarding work I’m doing here in Botswana is teaching small business and entrepreneurship classes at the nearby refugee camp. Due to the strict protocol and security clearances needed to teach at the camp on a regular basis I had to wait quite a while (8 months) to actually start the project and it was worth the wait.

I recently completed the first term of Entrepreneurship Classes I was teaching at the camp. I worked with the business school at Winthrop University, USAID Business Development in Botswana, the Botswana College of Distance Learning (BOCODOL), combined with my business experience to create 9 classes in basic business skills needed for aspiring Entrepreneurs. I am working at the camp with Skillshare International, an international Non-Governmental Organization NGO that focused on providing job training and work skills to underserved or economically disadvantaged populations. At the camp here in Botswana, Skillshare runs classes in dressmaking, auto repair, computer skills, catering, and retail ownership, to name a few of their programs. My first students were women participating in the dressmaking program. I started teaching at the end of June and the first term ended on August 21. I taught two classes a day, 1-2 days a week from 10:00-11:30 am and again from 2:30-4:00 pm. At first I’m not sure my students understood the value of what I was teaching, and I was probably going too fast with the material. Over time, I slowed down and the students began to appreciate how they could use the information they were receiving from the lessons and discussions to come up with a business idea and how to create a plan to launch their business idea, whether it was opening a dress shop, starting a small garden to sell produce, starting a car wash, or buying some chickens to create a small poultry project.

The women were from all over Africa – Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Congo, Angola and Somalia. They left their homes and lives to come to Botswana for various reasons – political oppression, fear of violence by their government or armies, economic collapses, rape, and leaving a failed state. Some of the women have dreams to return home (many of the Angolans are going back over the next 6 months) to start a business, or take their skills and knowledge and resettle in a country like the U.S, Canada or Sweden. Some may end up trying to start a business in Botswana. All of them want to have more control over their lives and to be able to provide a living for themselves and their families and not depend on handouts from Botswana and other international NGOs, and I was happy and honored to help them learn some basics about starting a business so that they could fulfill their dreams of business ownership.

All 24 women who took the final exam on August 21 passed with scores of 70% or higher and will earn certificates of entrepreneurship from Skillshare. I will continue to work with some of the dressmakers on managing tenders (basically RFPs) to make school uniforms for poor families in our region and will start teaching another group of budding entrepreneurs on September 26.

Below are some photos of me and my first group of Entrepreneurship students.