#5by20 ... one powerful hashtag

Being an ambitious mom, who at some point was a single mom, makes me value the meaning of Women Empowerment. On the first day of our adventure in Tanzania, we visited the Coca-Cola Sabco Plant. This ofcourse was a highlight for me as it's right up my ally. The plant tour was exciting as we witnessed how Coca-Cola products are bottled and packaged. What left a mark was efficiency of their water treatment plant. They are quite environmentally conscious and stive towards improvement, recycling bottles and limiting their water usage in the plant.

Recycling bottles is huge in Tanzania

Different Coca-Cola bottles over the years, and the competitors

Couldn't resist posting my crazy mommies in hair nets

We were then introduced to an amazing woman by the name of Lillian Kessey. She has always had a calling for business management. At the age of 24, she started her business and graduated to being a distributor. You can clearly see her passion and she wears her heart on her sleeve. When she went through divorce, her bitter ex stole all her stock overnight. Everything. A new single mom of 1, she pleaded with Coca-cola to help her.

Lillian, A real survivor and epitome of a strong woman

And yet again, Coca-Cola came to the rescue. They knew how passionate she was about her business and so invested in her with stock. And so she rebuilt her life from scratch. We were all in tears as she spoke because she showed so much courage and beat the odds. And for Coca-cola to empower her with business skills through their classes was a life changing moment.

She puts a new meaning to Success

This is just a quarter of the stock that Lillian is distributing, she has grown so much

And we also met Mnazi Mmoja. A women representing the demographic dynamics in Tanzania. Less job opportunity for women, women staying in abusive relationships due to porverty, hopelessness and desperation. She is now one of the beneficiaries for the 5by20 program.

"Through 5by20, we address the most common barriers women face when trying to succeed in the marketplace. This initiative offers women access to business skills training courses, financial services and connections with peers or mentors -- along with the confidence that comes with building a successful business."

5by20 is The Coca-Cola Company’s global commitment to enable the economic empowerment of 5 million women entrepreneurs across the company’s value chain by 2020.

Little food and beverage vendors, this is how the women make their money

Cheers to the success of an amazing project

Solar Power fitted for each vendor

One of the women whose life was touched by Coca-Cola

Labels: 5by20, Coca Cola