B-school students launch and run innovative social program in Africa

Launched last year, the Meheba Entrepreneurs Society & Institute is a student-led entrepreneurship center to offer business training and microcredit loans to refuges in the Meheba refugee camp, which operates under the aegis of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Zambia. Rather than simply giving and recollecting loans like traditional microfinance initiatives, the MESI program ensures that all loan recipients are fully prepared to start a small business. It provides entrepreneurial education workshops covering subjects such as Leadership, Microfinance, Business Management, and Accounting. Before receiving loans, recipients must complete a two month training process. Social entrepreneurship students collaborated with an executive professor at the College of Business Administration to develop the MESI curriculum, and the entire program has been implemented and run by students.

Below is a mini-case study on the project – let me know if you’d like to explore developing a story on this.

Located in the Northwestern region of Zambia, the Meheba refugee camp operates under the aegis of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The swollen settlement shelters an estimated 18,000 displaced persons. Primarily Angolan, the population also includes smaller refugee concentrations from Burundi, the Congo, Rwanda, Somalia, and Uganda. While language and culture vary, most Meheba inhabitants share the common experience of desperate flight from a homeland laden with violence and civil war.

Once inside the gates, settlement life poses new challenges to refugees. Family units often arrive incomplete due separation en route. High rates of HIV and other infectious diseases, compounded by limited public health resources, leave many debilitated. The loss of primary providers places surviving relations at especially high risk. Without formal skills, education, or training, widowed mothers are particularly vulnerable in Meheba. Even for families with two healthy parents, daily survival is a struggle. The economically-barren camp holds limited opportunity for employment. Income generation requires ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and skills.

In 2005, Northeastern University planted a seed of hope for Meheba. While a volunteer at the camp, Northeastern student Esther Chou investigated economic issues of income generation. Back on campus, Chou reported her observations to undergraduate peers Nayeli Vivanco and Pete D’Aleo. Recognizing the urgent issues at stake, the group set a course for immediate action.

Executive Professor Dennis Shaughnessy in the College of Business Administration was approached for social enterprise guidance. After articulating the critical need to foster self-reliance amongst refugees, the team presented a case-based solution; a model to create a student-led entrepreneurship center in Meheba to offer business training and microcredit loans to refuges.

The students collaborated to methodically design a business skills curriculum and customized loan structure for the community. Working on campus, they routinely turned to their mentor for entrepreneurial expertise and encouragement. Confident in their social enterprise plan, impressed by their capabilities, and moved by their passion, Professor Shaughnessy also decided to take action. Using personal resources, Shaughnessy established the Calpurnia Fund to help launch the project. The Northeastern Social Enterprise Fund and the Northeastern International Affairs Program also provided the team with seed capital.

Later that year, vision became reality when Chou, Vivanco, and D’Aleo landed in Zambia. The students built an office, selected staff members, and trained administrators. Within three weeks, the Meheba Entrepreneurs Society & Institute (MESI) officially opened enrollment. Throughout the summer, the co-founders delivered and directed the first skills enrichment training and microcredit program for refugees.

Today the MESI program remains distant from traditional microfinance initiatives. Rather than simply giving and recollecting loans, the program ensures that all loan recipients are fully prepared to start a small business. It provides entrepreneurial education workshops covering subjects such as Leadership, Microfinance, Business Management, and Accounting. Before receiving loans, recipients must complete a two month training process.

The curriculum is specially-tailored to the African refugee small business setting. This five-week course is translated into languages such as Swahili, Luvale, French or English and provides loan recipients with the skills necessary to succeed in their entrepreneurial ventures.

Upon successful completion of the training course, refugee participants submit individual plans for small, start-up businesses. Student leaders review the plans and, when applicable, grant loans to newly-inducted refugee entrepreneurs. Loans are given in the form of Zambian Kwacha or investment capital, and are offered to both male and female applicants. Loan amounts range anywhere from $75 to start small scale entrepreneurial ventures, such as mat-making or fish trading, to $2,000 for large scale group endeavors, such as the purchase of hammer mills or butcheries.

In its first year of existence, MESI provided loans to 112 individuals, whose lives were transformed through economic self-sufficiency. The current rate of loan repayment exceeds 90 percent. Rather than traditional repayment, loans from this program are repaid to a community fund which will be used to sustain business training in Meheba.

This fund also already provided for the creation of a new firm with five lending officers. These partners work as microfinance officers, office managers, and workshop instructors. MESI staff members come from all over the African continent, including Sudan, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zambia.

Other measurable impacts for participants in the pilot program included:

· Integrated guidance/loans that launched 80 new businesses in a poor economy.
· Customized entrepreneurship training and increased levels of job-readiness.
· Personal empowerment – most especially women who endure great suffering.
· Sustained, economic empowerment for the community as ensured by the fund.


Let me know if you’d like to incorporate this into a social entrepreneurship story.