Empowering women to combat gender inequality and stereotypes is one of the reasons that drove Veronika Naiwaqa to become a trainer.
Originally from Nabalebale Village in Cakaudrove, Ms Naiwaqa helps mentor women from all walks of life.
She is set to mentor over 200 women micro business owners in the fourth 2023 Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) cohort that is set to begin this month.
In the past year, Ms Naiwaqa has been running her ‘Learning and development: Upskill yourself”‘ business, focusing on effective communication and leadership.
“I have rephrased it and tailored it to suit an organization, company or community group,” she said.
Her training sessions cover, among others, leadership and communication which includes self development, intrapersonal skills then into the larger business interpersonal skills where you have public speaking, business communication, written and verbal communication.
Her journey as a trainer began while she was fully employed at the International Labor Organization as the director’s executive assistant.
She said after working a full 10 years at ILO, she decided to resign from her job in June 2022 and venture into business.
She has never looked back since. “I think I was intentionally planning for two years for the big shift in my career.
“I got lots of demands to do trainings when I was still employed at ILO so I would do it in my spare time or Saturdays.
“I would meet other business individuals and entrepreneurs, very inspiring women who coached me into contemplating moving out. Things fell into place during the testing momements of the COVID-19 lockdown (2021).
“I began to do some soul searching, intentional planning and diving into my greatest fear which was the inconsistent income.
“And so I left my full-time job and I just enjoyed it and there is no turning back.”
Ms Naiwaqa says she came to know about the AWE program through the Women Entrepreneurs Business Council (WEBC), which she is a member of.
“I am a member of WEBC as I’ve done previous toastmasters training for them, which is public speaking.
“I also do individual coaching and through that there was an expression of interest put out for an AWE trainer which I applied for and got.”
She said she looked forward to speaking with women and learning from their experiences as small business owners.
“I’m so excited to help women. I expect that I will be sharing the knowledge that I have and also learning from them.
“They are just fundamental figures of our society and I look forward to learning from them, understanding their real challenges and use my skills to coach them.”
Her message to women who are thinking about starting their own businesses is ‘to go for it’.
“We tend to doubt ourselves and self-spook saying ‘I can’t do this and I can’t do that’. “Do away with self-excuses and find your strengths and go forward with it.”
