Elizabeth Busumba lives in the quiet village of Busalala in northwestern Tanzania. Before joining Solar Sister, life was not easy.
“I had a difficult lifestyle. I used to do some labor work on the farms to get the means. Life was difficult with farming because farming depends heavily on seasonality. I had no business to run, only that I had to wait for the season, so I looked for labor work on the farms,” she explains.
“The main challenge was to feed my family, to support kids at school, especially with uniforms and exercise books.”
Elizabeth heard about Solar Sister through friends who are members of a Solar Sister group in the village.
Through the initial seminar that Solar Sister provided to the group, I was inspired to know more about the mission of Solar Sister, especially in empowering women through entrepreneurship. It caught my interest to join.”
When Elizabeth began her clean energy business in 2020, she was nervous.
“I was so excited at first to see how I was going to get a customer for the product,” she recalls. “I had such questions as: What if the customers do not want the product I am selling?” One time in the early days, she walked for 30 minutes and met three people who weren’t interested. Then I met a family that was looking for similar products. After pitching, I was able to sell.”
Through Solar Sister’s monthly trainings, she learned how to run a business.
“The training went on month on month. I learned about the company and its products, and how to start a small clean energy business.”
Now, her business supports her family with food.
The income from her business has made a real difference.
“Now I do not worry about school fees and clothes. My son, John, age 7, is improving in school. He now has learning materials, exercise books, and uniforms. I am also able to buy shares in the VICOBA (local village savings association) and invests in stocks. At first, I couldn’t buy shares and invest, but now I can buy shares with the profits I make I can buy food and clothes.”
She balances her work as a mother and entrepreneur with help from her extended family. “I live with my mother and grandmother, whom I leave behind at home, so that I can go and do my business in the afternoon.”
Elizabeth says demand for clean energy is still high.
“The community around me still needs clean energy products because the areas around me still have difficulty accessing electricity. Most people in her community use candles or battery torches for light and cook on traditional three-stone fires”.
She finds customers by visiting new places, at auctions, or in markets. “People like the quality of my products and are asking for different products, even the ones that use electricity,” she says.
Her dreams for the future are big.
“I want to grow my capital and become a bigger businesswoman in the future, with a variety of clean energy products.” She also sees new opportunities. “I am thinking about the great need for irrigation pumps. There are none in some areas. If I can get these, it will help me a lot. This is a big opportunity—we have a lot of rivers, and I see the way people struggle to farm their vegetables, mostly in the dry season.”