Avocados are delicious! Especially when they are fresh from the tree in Tanzania. But even here, not all fruits are edible; some are mushy or rotten. At Joyland Secondary School in Same, students participating in our PROBONO Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) have come up with a clever solution for recycling such avocados: as an ingredient in shoe polish. Shoe polish production is a new start-up idea in the second PEP program, which was launched in Tanzania this year. At school, young people learn in theory – and, thanks to their own small student companies, also in practice – how to start and run a business. In an environment with high youth unemployment, this contributes to better future prospects for girls and boys. Twelve secondary schools and one vocational school are participating in PEP2 and are planning to produce ice cream and snacks, soap, hairdressing salons, or tomato cultivation—some have already started. The student companies from the first three-year PEP program in Tanzania, which concluded last year, are continuing to operate successfully. And new ones are even joining!

In Uganda, too, the twelve participating secondary schools have founded innovative start-ups as part of the PROBONO PEP program—including St. Joseph's Secondary School Nkoni, which stands out for its diversity of ideas and market orientation. Their project: the production of chalk—a product that every school needs. In the first PEP year, the girls and boys borrowed a machine to make chalk, but thanks to their clever business strategies and hard work, they were able to buy their own machine in the second PEP year with the money they earned. The students at St. Joseph's now sell their chalk to five schools – and the trend is rising! The next step? A market analysis showed that schools in the surrounding area need colored chalk, and the PEP Club at St. Joseph's is ready to expand its product range. Our PEP programs are supported by the Gerhard and Paul-Hermann Bauder Foundation, the help alliance, the Froschkönig Foundation, the Dr. Hella and Dieter Siekermann Foundation, Merifin Capital, Baker Tilly, the Louis Leitz Foundation, and private donations. Thank you very much!