From sleeping on a papyrus mat to building a production facility for working women

As Jolly Okot described her dream of building a common user facility where women entrepreneurs could produce more, I listened with admiration. Today, you see a confident woman leading from the front, and it’s hard to imagine the 17-year-old girl who was once abducted during the war in northern Uganda. She escaped, walked about 60 miles to safety, and returned to school. Her voice today carries no trace of bitterness. Every word is shaped by survival and softened by purpose, and well described by Jolly as “my past doesn’t define me, only my present and future matter.”

I met Jolly at MoTIV, a creative hub in Kampala, where artisans and entrepreneurs collaborate to bring their ideas to life, during our project support visit to the Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises Project (GROW). She was among the women entrepreneurs gathered at MoTIV, which has become a natural node for GROW activities, from hosting the GROW Innovation Expo to curated market days that spotlight women-led businesses.

The GROW Project aims to increase access to entrepreneurial services that enable female entrepreneurs to grow their enterprises in targeted locations, including host and refugee districts. Funded by the World Bank and implemented by the Government of Uganda, GROW brings together four interlinked components that connect empowerment, finance, infrastructure, and innovation.

We at the World Bank Group are scaling more and better jobs to improve economic growth in Africa and supporting women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses through different projects. The GROW Project contributes to this by creating pathways to better jobs. We have learnt that a bundle of services—from women’s platforms and business training to access to credit and shared production facilities—helps women sustain and scale their enterprises.

GROW targets 60,000 female-owned enterprises and 3,000 refugee businesses, with an estimated 1.6 million indirect beneficiaries. Nearly 120,000 will benefit from improved access to infrastructure.

For Jolly, it was the opportunity she had long been waiting for. We were surprised to see at her small workshop in Gulu City—about 330 km north of Kampala, Uganda’s capital—around 100 women, most of them affected by war, fill the room with the rhythm of sewing machines. When she announced 30 training spots were open, 300 women applied. The need was clear. The challenge was capacity. We were convinced that what Jolly  needed most was a larger facility, more machines, and the resources to train more women.

That opportunity came through GROW’s Gender-Inclusive Infrastructure Grant, which aims to support women-owned enterprises with space, equipment, and training to unlock opportunities and jobs. She applied with the same proposal she had carried from donor to donor for years, not knowing that this time the door would open.

When she finally received the call confirming her selection for a GROW facility grant, she couldn’t believe it. “I was overjoyed,” she recalled. “Up to now, I’m still speechless at how this journey has come to reality through GROW, the World Bank, and the Ministry of Gender.”

Uganda has one of the highest rates of women’s entrepreneurship in Africa; however, we are aware that many remain small-scale due to limited access to finance and markets, and social norms are a challenge, as Jolly described, “When a woman starts to earn, some men become uncomfortable. We’ve learned that true empowerment also involves working with men to change that mindset.”

Her husband now helps men in his community see that when women thrive, families and communities do too. It’s an approach that echoes GROW’s broader vision, linking economic opportunity with social change, and ensuring that progress at the workplace is matched by understanding at home.

In our conversation with Jolly, we gathered that she was born in the late 1960s in a small village in northern Uganda and lived a childhood of scarcity: one meal a day, no shoes, nights sleeping on a papyrus mat shared with siblings. The war left a long shadow, but she kept walking towards her own dawn, helping others rebuild in partnership with humanitarian agencies and refugee programs. We were gratified to know that a documentary took Jolly and her story to the United States, bringing international attention to the war. When she returned home, she launched mentorship and education programs that helped many children return to school.

Along the way, she founded the Women Empowerment Network and Design (WEND, Africa), a social enterprise empowering war-affected women with skills and livelihoods. Fifteen women now run their micro-facilities, employing and training others, creating a ripple effect of skills and opportunity that stretches across northern Uganda. For Jolly, empowerment multiplies when one woman’s progress sparks another’s. “Even if you give someone capital,” she says, “without training in technical skills, business and financial management, the money will not last.”

Through the GROW grant, Jolly plans to establish a new production facility in Gulu City, which will expand WEND Africa’s capacity from 100 to 500 women. The facility, supported by the World Bank, will house specialized machines for embroidery, hemming, and leatherwork, allowing women to train, produce, and earn under one roof.

Those already running small businesses will also be able to use the machines for a minimal fee, with the revenue covering maintenance and ensuring long-term sustainability. We are convinced that Jolly will achieve her dream of reaching global clients through Amazon, helping local women entrepreneurs find markets beyond Uganda, with the support from GROW.