Olive Muwagga always enjoyed being creative, and won a gold medal for art in Uganda in her fourth year of secondary school. In 1989, she began working as a handcraft trainer for the National Association of Women’s Organizations in Uganda (NAWOU). While at NAWOU, she learned small-scale business management, marketing, and customer-driven product development. In 1999, she began her own organization, African Women Youth Crafts Association (AWYCA). AWYCA has around a hundred producers throughout Uganda, including women and widows, the disabled, and internally displaced people. Her products include greeting cards, beads, jewelry, Christmas kreshes, baskets, bags, cowhide drums, dolls, and mobiles. Olive’s challenge to her artisans sums up her artist's spirit: “Can you create something out of your heart?”

A single mom of eight children, Dina Kanslime learned how to run a sewing business from a women’s co-op in Mbarara, Uganda. In 2008, she branched out and began creating her own products. She scours vendors for high-quality kitengi (colorful East African fabrics) and turns them into beautiful cloth napkins, placemats, and jewelry bags. Dina is most proud of how “I can take simple things and create something useful . . . like napkins. People appreciate the products and I can support my children.”

Born in Gulu in northern Uganda, Odong now lives in Mbarara, Uganda, with his wife and four children. In 1998, someone suggested Odong Wilson and his friend Richard try making products out of cow horn. Although Odong was originally a mechanic, the two men began experimenting with cow horn to see what they could make. Evernaully they began making bangles and earrings, and customers liked the work and asked for more products. After several years of working for a co-op, Odong opened his own business in 2007. He makes his products from Ankole cow horns found in the Mbarara and Kampala regions of southwest Uganda. Odong is proud that “my business is expanding, and I’ve trained many people who have also started their own business and are doing well.”

Originally from Masaka, Uganda, Skovia Kisakye has lived in Mbarara with her three children for the last decade. In 2006, a friend sent Skovia Kisakye to the town of Jinja to learn how to make paper beads. In 2007, she began regularly making beaded jewelry as a side business. She takes magazine paper and old posters and rolls them to turn them into colorful jewelry. When she can, she meets with four women from her church to work together. Scovia enjoys making beaded jewelry because she likes seeing the joy and appreciation on her customers faces.