Promoting innovation through girls empowerment

In a world where women are still underrepresented in the business world, the Foundation for the Educational and Environmental Advancement of Tanzanians (FEET) is working to change that by empowering young girls to become entrepreneurs.

FEET Tanzania has launched a Girls Entrepreneurship Camp (GEC) aimed at providing essential skills needed for success in school, at home, and in future careers. The program has been running in different schools in Tanzania since August 2022, and so far, 22 schools have benefitted from it.

The GEC was designed by Rania Nasser (a Tanzanian student at UC Berkeley) and a cofounder of FEET to prepare girls aged between 14 and 18 for the rigors of becoming an entrepreneur and to teach them the process of starting and running an enterprise. The program spans over two days, during which participants work in teams and are mentored by coaches. On the third day, students present and defend their solutions before a panel of industry experts.
The program starts with team selection on the first day, following a series of activities that give students the opportunity to learn the skills, capabilities, and personalities of their potential team members. Students then learn how famous companies design products people love. Next, they practice product design by using design thinking to create three original concepts that solve a challenge.

On the second day, participants learn how to get and give feedback, take a cool idea from concept to market-ready design, and create a marketing strategy to spread the message of their team's new product. They also learn basic money management skills through fun games and create a pricing strategy and finance plan for their team's product.

By the end of the program, each team will have written a business plan and worked with a designer to visualize their product. The participants will have acquired essential skills, including leadership, communication and conflict resolution, forming a business team, determining business feasibility, conducting market research, determining product price, calculating costs, business proposal development, budgeting, inventory control, marketing, and presenting their ideas.

FEET believe that young people, even in the poorest and most disadvantaged neighborhoods, have the power to change their lives and communities. The Girls Entrepreneurship Camp is a testament to that belief, as it is empowering young girls to become entrepreneurs and to change their future.

Prior to this initiative FEET has been holding an annual Girls Stem Competition.

In the digital age, the real-world status of women and girls has become indivisible from its online counterpart. “We are living in 2022,” Rania emphasizes. “We can’t separate gender equality and technology.”   

And yet women remain systematically excluded from technology and innovation. This means not only missing out on high-paying jobs, but also on the chance to shape the digital world in which we are increasingly living.

FEET is in the process of developing an app for the Girls Entrepreneurship Camps.  The app, will be made available on IOS and Android in Swahili and English, offering users a digital platform with entrepreneurship related games, quizzes, forums and other interactive content to get a feel about what it takes to have an idea to reality.