Turning “Love for children” into a business

Three young women from Ilha de Moçambique, Nampula province, have made a childhood dream come true after winning a Best Business Plan competition promoted by the HOJE (Skills plus Opportunities Result in Young People with Jobs) project. Carlas Machava, Eufrasia Manuel and Ornana Ali, aged between 24 and 36, were student apprentices on the Kindergarten Educators six-month course, as part of the HOJE project, and after graduating they were unsuccessful in the job market. Obviously, they were frustrated!

As knowledge is power, and those who have it are better equipped to overcome challenges, the three young enterpreuners managed to individually collect 10,000 meticais (more than one minimum wage for the Mozambican government) as an award prize from the project. They decided to use the money to set up a business and they succeeded: they established the “Cantinho das Crianças” school in March of this year, having enrolled 10 children at that time. This achievement paved the way for these entrepreneurs to fulfill their dream of becoming child educators, to better support their communities by taking care of the “flowers that never wilt”.

"We're still growing, and our aim is to gain the trust of the community so that we can then adjust the price of our services according to the context and capacity of the families who seek our services. At the moment we charge a modest monthly fee for each child, so that we can cover our running costs and keep the business going,” said Carla - Director of Escolinha.

For Carla, Ornana and Eufrasia, technology is an ally and so they have been using social media to advertise the school's services in order to increase the number of children enrolled. In the long term, the aim is to acquire their own infrastructure, as the current facility is rented.