SUPPORT MICRO SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN UGANDA

The entrepreneurial experience of single mother entrepreneurs remains largely unexplored. Informal discussion with single mothers gave us an insight that they need support in developing small enterprises and eventually grow. We recruited 83 single mothers and a number of them dropped out of the program and we eventually started with 66. The were taken through business clinic model where the basic skills to star and run a successful enterprise was explained to them. They were given opportunities to come up with ideas of their interest that can help them generate income to support their families. We are planning to use this success stories to recruit more women into the program. The women have been registered into village based cooperatives and we shall track the progress they make while there. The intervention addresses the issue by analyzing the challenges single mother entrepreneurs encountered in their entrepreneurial ambitions to ensure the survival of their businesses, improve their quality of life, and contribute to the development of society.  The outcome of the interaction with single mothers revealed that the main challenges faced by the majority of the single-mother entrepreneurs were closely related to the lack of financial support, entrepreneurial skills, and business resources, stigmatization by society, as well as issue in balancing their domestic and business responsibilities. To ensure the survival of their businesses, single mother entrepreneurs are mostly dependent on their informal support system and inner strengths. Although useful, the informal support system cannot support the business survival of their businesses and strengthen their financial position. Besides, their internal motivation and creativity assist them in attracting potential customers and competing in the market.

  Single Usually need intensive counselling because the are viewed as the most vulnerable social groups in society . Often, the characteristics used to describe single mothers are related to negative aspects such as lack of educational attainment, lack of skills, lack of social networks and conflicts in coping with work-family responsibilities. It is argued that these disadvantages limit the ability of single mothers to compete for employment opportunities or to be successful in their entrepreneurship activities. As such, it is not surprising that the issue of poverty among single mothers has received considerable attention in different women empowerment programs in our country, Uganda One way of how single mothers overcome their economic vulnerabilities and support the well-being of their families is through the involvement in small business activities Like vegetable growing, Mushroom growing, Rabbit rearing and crafts to mention but a few.