Empowering Women at Ellilta Products
The story of a growing Ethiopian social enterprise in a highly global competitive market.
During the first two weeks of October 2019, fifteen SAP employees participated in an SAP Social Sabbatical program in Ethiopia, with the aim of helping social enterprises “Run Better”. This is in harmony with SAP’s overarching vision to “Help the World Run Better and Improve People’s Lives “. Three of us — Areeba Siddiqui (SAP Pakistan), Daniel De Souza (SAP Portugal) and I — Mohamad Turani (SAP Saudi Arabia), were assigned to an organization called “Ellilta Women at Risk” or EWAR. Ellilta’s mission is to help restore women from the vicious cycle of prostitution and empower them to thrive. Since its foundation in 1996, Ellilta has helped to restore over 1000 women from a life of prostitution.
In February 2012, EWAR established Ellilta Products to create job opportunities for women, while simultaneously generating income for EWAR, by producing scarves and various styles of jewelry.
The Scope of Work of our engagement was to support Ellilta Products in building a digital marketing and social selling strategy to drive revenue growth, empowering women at risk to thrive. In this way, we were able to help this small enterprise compete at global level, especially since 57% of customers make their buying decisions on social media, before they contact the supplier. The digital marketing strategy was totally dependent on having a solid business, organizational and operational foundations, so we revised the initial Scope of Work into a full transformation exercise which included production, marketing, sales and operations. This is a big chunk of work to cover in a period of two weeks!
During the process of the situational analysis and recommendation, we engaged with Ellilta leadership team, various staff members, customers, competitors and partners. Together with the Ellilta leadership team, we developed a transformation plan that covers all aspects.
The impact we were able to achieve as volunteers was very visible and highly appreciated. The human and emotional impact on the workers was most touching; they were inspired to share creative ideas and thoughts because they sensed our appreciation for their work and opinions.
As a team, the impact on us was equally tangible. On the business side, we saw immediate, visible impact through building the brand and driving on-line traffic. We had a professional video produced, which tells the story and value of Ellilta and shared this online. We are confident that the plan of engagement on the various social platforms, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, will have a very clear impact on demand generation for their products and subsequently positively impact sales and revenue.
On a personal note, it was inspiring to work with an organization that protects the most vulnerable people in society. Ellilta does not just create jobs. It restores dignity and provides hope to many whom might have felt like there was no alternative.
I encourage you to watch the Ellilta Story
You can also support Ellilta Products via their website: Ellilta Products
#SAP4Good #SocialSabbatical #SEWF2019
Edited by: Ansophie Strydom
