AYC Women's Business Training: Celebrating Five Years of Confidence, Income, and Transformation
By Annabel Mumba
Annabel Mumba is AYC’s Donor Relations Coordinator. She is a Scholarship Fund recipient, and a graduate of Mulungushi University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications (Journalism), and also one of our Success Stories.
Co-written by Pamela O’Brien, African Education Program’s Development Director, who is mentoring Annabel.
Violet displays the certificate each graduate receives.
Five years ago, during one of the most uncertain periods in recent history, Amos Youth Centre (AYC) launched a simple but powerful idea: if women were given the right skills, support, and opportunities, they could transform not only their businesses but also the future of their families.
The Women's Business Training was born at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when livelihoods were disappearing overnight, and many households were struggling to make ends meet. For women who were already carrying the responsibility of feeding their families and managing households, the challenges were immense. Many young people that we serve come from single-parent households. Yet amidst the uncertainty, AYC saw an opportunity to invest in resilience.
"We believed that if we could strengthen a woman's business, we could strengthen her household," explains Violet Mukumbwa, AYC's Entrepreneurship Manager. "A stable business means a stable income, and a stable income means a family that can survive and thrive, even in difficult times."
What began as a small pilot program serving just 30 women has grown into a thriving initiative that has trained and graduated 323 women entrepreneurs across twelve cohorts. Today, the program does far more than teach business skills. It is building confidence, strengthening families, creating support networks and helping women discover what they are capable of achieving.
During the pandemic, classes were taught outdoors with participants masked for everyone’s safety.
Building a Foundation During a Crisis
The first women who walked through AYC's doors came from different backgrounds and circumstances. Some already had small businesses and were looking for ways to improve them. Others had never owned a business before. Many of these women had spent years building livelihoods only to watch them crumble during the lockdown of the pandemic.
Launching a program centred on bringing women together during a period of social distancing was not easy. Training sessions had to be adapted, plans changed frequently, and new ways of connecting with participants had to be found. Yet despite these challenges, the program endured.
Looking back, Violet believes one of the greatest strengths of the program was its focus on practical, real-world skills. The training was designed to meet women where they were, helping them understand record-keeping, customer care, money management, business planning and entrepreneurship in ways that could be applied immediately.
What started as a program for mothers whose children had direct access to AYC's services gradually opened its doors to the wider community, a decision Violet describes as one of the best they ever made.
“Opening up to the community expanded our reach significantly and brought in a much more diverse group of women: each with their own story, their own business ideas, and their own potential.”
Today, the program targets at least 90 women annually. The core approach has remained consistent because, as Violet puts it, they got the foundations right from the beginning. What has changed is the scale, reach and impact.
The number that tells the story best: 80% of graduates report an increase in income immediately after completing the training.
"When I see that statistic, I do not see a percentage; I see faces," Violet shared. "I see women who came to us uncertain, sometimes struggling and who left with something they did not have before."
Florence proudly shows off her market stand.
Florence's Story: Turning Knowledge into Growth
For Florence, a graduate of the Women’s Business Training 12th cohort, the training arrived at exactly the right time.
A mother of five, Florence has been running her roadside business since 2014, selling vegetables and small pre-packed food items to support her household. Like many small business owners, she worked hard every day but often found herself facing challenges she did not know how to overcome.
When she heard about the Women's Business Training through friends, one thing immediately stood out to her: the opportunity to learn. What she discovered during the training was much more than she expected.
Through sessions on customer care, communication, savings and business management, Florence began to see her business differently. One lesson in particular transformed her approach.
“I learned that customers are the key to the growth of my business,” she says. “Before, I was not patient with customers, and it affected my sales.”
The training encouraged her to step outside her comfort zone, evaluate how she was running her business and embrace new ways of interacting with customers. Those changes soon began to produce results.
After graduating, Florence was selected to receive a small business grant. The additional capital allowed her to expand her stock, increase the variety of products she sold, and attract more customers.
Today, she describes her business as thriving.
More importantly, she carries a renewed sense of confidence. Challenges still arise, as they do for every entrepreneur, but she now feels equipped to navigate them. She has also become an advocate for other women, encouraging members of her savings group to join the training and experience the same transformation.
Evarasha increased her profits after the business training.
Evarasha's Story: Five Years Later
While Florence's story demonstrates the immediate impact of the Women's Business Training, Evarasha's story shows what that impact can look like years later.
As a graduate from the very first cohort, Evarasha has spent the last five years applying the lessons she learned through the program while building a better future for herself and her four children.
Her entrepreneurial journey began long before she joined the training. As a young girl in Grade 6, she sold goods after school to earn an income. Over the years, she built a small business selling vegetables, cooking oil, second-hand clothing, and other household items at Shikoswe Main Market. Despite her hard work and determination, she often found herself facing challenges that many small business owners know all too well: unexplained losses, shrinking capital, and uncertainty about how to grow.
When she heard about AYC's newly launched Women's Business Training in 2021, she was curious. More than anything, she wanted answers.
“I knew I needed the classes because I was facing challenges in my business,” she recalls. “I wanted to understand what I was doing wrong.”
During the training, Evarasha discovered practical tools that helped her manage her finances more effectively and make smarter business decisions. She learned how to identify opportunities to generate capital, improve customer relationships, and keep a better track of her business performance.
Five years later, those lessons continue to shape her daily life.
The knowledge she gained has helped her sustain her business, support her children through school, provide food for her household, and remain resilient even during difficult periods. She credits customer management lessons in particular with helping her build stronger relationships with customers and increase sales.
The training also introduced her to a network of women who continue to support one another long after graduation. Through regular check-ins and shared encouragement, these relationships have become an important part of her entrepreneurial journey.
Today, Evarasha describes herself as a more confident businesswoman and a source of encouragement for others. She regularly motivates women in her community to join the program, believing that the knowledge and skills she gained can help others transform their lives just as they transformed hers.
The Power of Partnership
Behind every cohort, every graduate, and every success story is the power of partnership. The entrepreneurship training at Amos Youth Centre would not have been possible without the collaboration between the African Education Program and Street Business School, an internationally recognised organisation that equips aspiring entrepreneurs with practical business skills and a mindset for success.
Violet travelled to Uganda to participate in the Street Business School's Training of Trainers (ToT) program. There, she was equipped with the tools, methodology, and hands-on experience needed to facilitate entrepreneurship training within her own community. Upon returning to Kafue, Violet launched the first cohort of the Women’s Business Training at Amos Youth Centre, laying the foundation for a program that has since transformed the lives of many young women.
Opportunities continue to open up for graduates of the Women’s Business Training.
Over the past five years, support from the African Education Program has played a critical role in helping establish the Entrepreneurship & Financial Literacy Program and grow the Women's Business Training from a small initiative into a thriving community program.
Their investment has enabled AYC to train hundreds of women, provide learning materials and create opportunities that might otherwise have been out of reach.
For Violet, these partnerships represent more than financial support.
"They understood the vision from the beginning," she says. "Without that support, much of what we have achieved over the past five years would not have been possible."
In addition to the long-standing support of the African Education Program, the Women's Business Training has also received valuable support from corporate partners such as Rubis Energy Zambia. Beyond supporting three fully funded cohorts, the company has also provided small grants to women entrepreneurs, helping bridge one of the biggest barriers many graduates face: access to capital.
As Florence's experience demonstrates, training is powerful, but when combined with financial support, women are able to put their new skills into practice immediately, accelerating their growth and increasing their chances of long-term success.
The result is a ripple effect that extends far beyond individual businesses.
Women are using their increased incomes to send children to school, purchase school supplies, improve household stability and create opportunities for the next generation. Communities become stronger when women are equipped to succeed.
The Women’s Business Training has become a vital resource in the community of Kafue.
Looking Ahead: The Next Five Years
As the Women's Business Training celebrates five years of impact, the vision for the future is clear.
The goal is no longer simply to serve women in Kafue. The dream is to take what has been built here and expand it to communities across Zambia.
Over the past five years, AYC has developed a model that works, one that equips women with practical skills, building confidence, and creates measurable improvements in income and wellbeing. The challenge now is ensuring that more women can access those opportunities.
Achieving that vision will require continued investment, strategic partnerships, and dedicated resources. It will require organisations, donors and community members who believe in the potential of women entrepreneurs and are willing to invest in their success.
The need remains significant, but so does the opportunity.
Every woman who joins the programme carries with her dreams, responsibilities and untapped potential. With the right support, those dreams can become thriving businesses, stronger families, and more resilient communities.
When Violet reflects on the past five years, one lesson stands above all others.
Six women from the 12th Cohort were awarded small business grants, thanks to Rubis Energy Zambia.
The women who come through the programme do not arrive empty-handed. They arrive with experience, determination and knowledge gained through years of navigating life's challenges. The role of the Women's Business Training is not simply to teach; it is to unlock and strengthen what is already there.
That belief is reflected in the stories of women like Florence and Evarasha.
Five years after its launch, the Women's Business Training has become about much more than entrepreneurship. It is about mothers who can provide for their families with dignity, children who can remain in school, and women who have discovered the confidence, skills, and resilience to shape their own futures. When a woman thrives, her family thrives, and so does her community.