Widower and mother of 5, Zainab Kargbo has been unemployed for 15 years until fortune struck her few months ago, when she received a call from the Sierra Leone Bottling Company (SLBC) Ltd to be a beneficiary of their ‘5by20’ program.
“I’m so glad. I’ve now been trained and now I can own my own business,” she said joyfully.
The ‘5by20′ program is Coca-Cola Company’s global commitment to enable the economic empowerment of 5 million women entrepreneurs across the company’s value chain by 2020 explained Sales Director, George Musa.
He explained, this first set of 100 women would be receiving 2 crates of soft drinks, a Cool-man, a table and an umbrella as startup. The Sales Director said each startup package is valued at $600.
The Sales Director explained that the beneficiaries’ were well sought out “we used a three way selection method to identify these beneficiaries.”
“We looked at the most vulnerable women in different communities, such as widows and female ebola survivors.”
Mr. Musa also explained that after identification of these beneficiaries’ they went through a thorough and rigorous verification process to ascertain there status, adding that 21 failed to meet the criteria, but however a new set of vulnerable women were identified to reach the 100 vulnerable women threshold.
He revealed that their target is to have provided startup for 400 women come this December and also monitor those provided with startup kits to see how they are fairing on.
Monday July 11, 2016
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