We created Enjuba in 2006 with two arms, an online clothing company that sold products made by Ugandan artisans and a social entrepreneurship program we developed at a Ugandan secondary school. We also designed a small savings, investment, and micro-credit program for Enjuba artisans. Below is a brief overview of Enjuba, including many of the people who were involved with Enjuba since it began as an idea at a bagel shop in Nashville, Tennessee when we were freshmen at Vanderbilt University. We are thankful for the collaboration we were able to have with everyone and grateful for the incredible amount of time and support given to us and Enjuba.
While Enjuba is no longer in business, Kirunda Aaron has started a mobile money transfer business called Enjubatel (Aaron was previously managing Enjuba’s operations in Uganda), and we are working to support young entrepreneurs through our involvement with the William James Foundation, which hosts a global business plan competition to identify, reward, and mentor the next generation of sustainable businesses.
Thanks for stopping by!
Wil Keenan and Henry Manice
Enjuba co-founders
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2005
We came up with the idea for starting Enjuba in 2005 while exploring (over a bagel at Bruegger’s in Nashville, Tennessee) whether we could use business to have a positive impact on Uganda. We aimed to create a for-profit business that could fund our own non-profit initiative. We decided the for-profit business would be an online clothing company with products made by Ugandan artisans, and since we were both into video and photography, we planned to connect the artisans with customers in the US through our website. We figured it would be best to explore ideas for the non-profit arm once we got over to Uganda.
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2006
We spent two months in Uganda after finishing up our freshman year at Vanderbilt University building a group of artisans and creating a line of products. Francis Kadoli helped us find and develop relationships with the artisans. Kaili Holtermann, a fellow Vanderbilt student, joined us in Uganda to design products and strengthen the artisan team. In the fall we launched our online store, which was designed by David Amouyal, also a student at Vanderbilt. The purpose of enjuba.com was to sell fashionable, unique, and high quality items that have stories of empowerment, inspiration, and innovation behind each of them. Vanderbilt students Ashley Kushner, Annsley Miller, Jade Morales, and Kaitlin Gibler greatly supported our campus sales and marketing. Enjuba products were modeled by Alia Eads, Ally Boynton, Anita Jivani, Ayia Gospondinova, Catherine Hambleton, Dionna Barnes, Emily Manice, Harriet Manice, Heajoo Kim, Kaitlin Gibler, Rachna Patel, and Shelby Gambrell.
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2007
During our second visit to Uganda in 2007, we developed our non-profit arm, a social entrepreneurship program at a Ugandan secondary school, in partnership with Ashoka Fellow Irene Mutumba and the Private Education Development Network. The program was developed with Graham Saunders, a student at UNC Chapel Hill, Meredith Bates, a Vanderbilt alumna who was living in Uganda at the time, and Kirunda Aaron, a graduate of East Africa’s leading university, Makerere. That summer we also set up a savings, investment, and micro-credit program for Enjuba artisans, and Leah Morgan, a Vanderbilt masters student, designed new products and conducted team building activities.
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