The Western Union Foundation’s Fellowship program focuses on supporting young changemakers whose community ventures positively impact refugees and other displaced populations around the world. We are proud to spotlight recent fellowship graduate, Catherine, and her Safe Girl Initiative which is supporting tens of thousands of women and girls through menstruation awareness campaigns and kits in refugee settlements and rural areas in Uganda.
“Being a part of the Western Union Foundation Fellowship has been an amazing journey of learning and discovery for me and my venture. The unique learning structure has enabled me to re-learn what I thought I knew, integrate some of my learnings into my venture, and see growth in it,” shared Catherine.
Having grown up in Uganda, Catherine saw firsthand how lack of access to menstruation education and products negatively impacts millions of girls in rural areas. As Co-Founder of Safe Girl Initiative, Catherine is on a mission to provide safe and affordable menstruation kits to underserved women and girls to help prevent absences from school and work, and provide girls with the dignity they deserve.
“What differentiates us is we provide an all-in-one solution. We’ve produced over 65,000 menstrual kits which have been distributed around the country, and we have opened a new production space that employs 22 people.”
“The Western Union Foundation Fellowship has positively impacted my venture and me through the sessions… especially those about measuring impact and communicating input and output. It has been a meaningful program and a unique experience. The program components address our most critical challenges as entrepreneurs.”
The Western Union Foundation launched the Fellowship in partnership with Watson Institute in 2021 to provide entrepreneurs with business training and seed funding to launch their own community-focused ventures. The impact of the program is further amplified by Basecamps that each Fellow organizes to provide training and resources to community members. To date, the Western Union Foundation Fellowship and Basecamps have supported more than 6,000 individuals.
Click here to donate to the Western Union Foundation and support even more social entrepreneurs as they change lives in communities around the world.
