Overcoming Fear to Create Change Across Social Sectors in Uganda
Martha Osiro is a social innovator who lives and works in Kampala, Uganda. She is a connector who believes in the power of networks to effect change in communities and has always been passionate about empowering people to live dignified lives.
With a background in health, Martha has a good understanding of how inequities in healthcare contribute to keeping communities in a cycle of poverty. She has engaged over 17,000 Ugandans through outreach events that offer treatment, health education, and referrals.
One day Martha got an unexpected call to work on a renewable energy project.
She felt fear creeping in.
“Renewable energy was not my area of expertise. My stomach would toss and turn thinking about it. It was hard to sleep at night.” she says.
Martha practiced the principles she learned as an Acumen East Africa Fellow to build courage, embrace challenges, and just start building what would become a successful social enterprise.
Facing the Fear to Just Start
Martha worked for several healthcare providers before joining Enlight Institute. Enlight Institute spun off of Village Energy, a startup co-founded by Acumen East Africa Fellows Abu Musuuza and Jay Patel which sets up a rural network of solar shops across Uganda to increase access, affordability, and trust in solar.
While revamping operations, Abu and Jay realized they needed technicians to offer after-sales services. They started a training college to teach people how to fix and repair solar equipment. They soon realized in order to scale, they had to inject new energy into the organization.
That’s when they contacted Martha.
Martha wanted to help but was skeptical because her background was in health, not energy.
“What do I know about working in renewable energy?” she recalls asking herself. “But then I remembered what I learned at Acumen about losing fear and just starting. That’s when I said, “‘Yes!’ Because at the end of the day, you better try and fail than not try at all.”
The goal was to build training and career coaching programs for rural youth to become solar energy technicians and shop managers in their local communities. But just starting proved difficult at first. The team had little money in the bank, only three staff, a van, and a small office.
When Martha started at the company they only had a few projects running and things looked bleak. Despite all their great ideas for expanding, they lacked the finances and team structures to get there.
Martha recalls staying up at night worrying about finances. “How was I going to make this company successful with such huge constraints?” she’d ask herself.
Embracing the Struggle
Martha relied on what she learned at Acumen, which was to maintain a strong sense of hope and resilience. She used Acumen’s teachings of moral imagination to put herself in her team’s shoes and reimagine new ways to tackle the challenges ahead.
First, she infused inspiration into her small team. “To make money, you need to spend money. I set up a nice office for our team, which was a huge motivator for them,” she says.
Next she sat with her team to plan a way forward. Working together, they devised a strategy and began the hard work of rolling out teaching programs which eventually gave birth to Enlight Institute’s training programs and job coaching sessions that exist today.
She empowered team members to make decisions and take ownership of their work. This was a challenge. Some members didn’t agree with her management style and they left the company to start a similar one, often competing for the same clients. Other team members who stayed on began taking shortcuts to get ahead.
“We had many disagreements because I am very straightforward. I believe in working with people who have integrity. That is a value I will never compromise on. I do not believe in shortcuts, when one door closes, we look for another one,” she says.
Following her experiences as an Acumen Fellow, Martha knew she didn’t have to sacrifice her values to be successful. She continued growing the company and gradually began noticing their successes.
Celebrating Successes
Martha admits it can be tough to navigate through challenges at first. But once you start constructing, what you’re building gets bigger and eventually people start taking notice.
“In the beginning, things are often hard. However, once you have traction people will start to support you,” Martha says.
Along the way, a local bishop gave the company 100 acres of land to grow food for 49 years. In return, the Bishop asked that 10% of the food harvested go to the community as a way of giving back.
“When looking for people to walk with you, show them what you have done and sell them the vision of the future. You will be surprised by how many of them are in your corner,” she adds.
One of her biggest highlights came when Enlight Institute was finally able to buy a school where they could run their training programs for the rural poor.
“We had no money. Only a dream. We put in a USD 15000 deposit and went ahead to raise the balance. So now we own a school, on 8 acres!” Martha says excitedly. “The only way we are going from here is up!” she adds.
Audacity to Build a Better World
You don’t have to be part of a large corporation, startup, or nonprofit organization to build a better world. All you need is the audacity and courage to get started on your journey toward impact.
Before joining Enlight Institute, Martha and a friend of hers had an idea to build the first ambulance station in the region. The idea seemed crazy at first because no one had ever tried it before. Despite the odds, they were set on providing dignified access to health services for the poor.
“When we got the idea, the first people we called were my family. My son gave me two bags of cement. My mother and her friends gave me another 100,” she says.
After that, they knocked on a few government offices. Officials were curious to know how she as a woman would make this work. They chose to support her with an official letter, which she used to knock on more doors. With government support, Martha and her friend soon got backing from a few corporates and donors who helped them get started, including a regional hospital that gave them a parking lot to house the ambulance station.
The project was a great success. “It’s high-tech, has hot showers, air conditioning, and an advanced IT system all built out of shipping containers,” Martha says.
“The ambulance station is an example of a small impactful project that has shown me the power of audacity and courage,” she adds.
Martha has made a huge splash as a social innovator working in both the healthcare and renewal energy sectors across Uganda. Her advice to others who are looking to create change is to lose the fear, surround yourself with the right community, and just start!
Apply for the Acumen East Africa Fellowship today to join a community of social innovators that are changing how the world tackles poverty.
