Women in Africa Venturing Education
She's already building.
We help it last.
WAVE is an initiative founded by four university students with the goal to strengthen women-led businesses and keep girls in school in Kigoma, Tanzania.
Kigoma, Tanzania · 10 July – 11 August 2026
Our approach
The women of Kigoma aren't short on ambition. They're short on access.
Most have run their businesses for years. What holds them back isn't drive, it's access to tools, capital, and know-how. WAVE doesn't arrive with answers but access. We strengthen what already works, and build it to last after we leave.
Build on real, running businesses, not imported ideas. We reinforce what the women have already built, rather than arrive with a blueprint from outside.
The region
Connected by trade.
Constrained by poverty.
Kigoma sits on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, a gateway between Tanzania and the Great Lakes region. Its economy runs on fishing, knitting, soap-making and small trade, most of it informal.
Main findings driving our concept
~250K
people live in Kigoma
49%
in Kigoma live below the World Bank $3-a-day poverty line¹
17%
of schoolgirls in Tanzania miss school for reasons related to menstruation²
73%
of the women we assessed keep no business records
1) Tanzania Household Budget Survey, 2012. 2) UNICEF, 2021.
The women & their work
Four industries. The same wall.
Our female partners run real businesses in four sectors, each capped by the same structural limits: no equipment, no records, no reach.
01Knitting & Textiles
Knitting & Textiles
Bed sheets, socks and garments that reach markets across Tanzania and beyond. Output is capped by hand production — a knitting machine multiplies it.
02Fish Vending
Fish Vending
Women buy, process and sell fish from Lake Tanganyika. Pricing and market connections are still too weak to scale, and vendors lack freezers and cold storage.
03Soap Making
Soap Making
Soap for local households and traders. Packaging, labelling and buyer connections are what hold growth back.
04Poultry Farming
Poultry Farming
Household flocks bring income, but without planning and reinvestment systems they can't grow sustainably.
Knitting & Textiles
Bed sheets, socks and garments that reach markets across Tanzania and beyond. Output is capped by hand production — a knitting machine multiplies it.
Fish Vending
Women buy, process and sell fish from Lake Tanganyika. Pricing and market connections are still too weak to scale, and vendors lack freezers and cold storage.
Soap Making
Soap for local households and traders. Packaging, labelling and buyer connections are what hold growth back.
Poultry Farming
Household flocks bring income, but without planning and reinvestment systems they can't grow sustainably.
Needs assessment · CIVISCE field data
We didn't guess. We asked.
Before committing a single dollar, CIVISCE ran a structured field assessment with 11 women-led businesses in Kigoma. The data shapes every part of the programme.
0
women assessed across all four sectors
0%
have run their business 3+ years
0%
keep no record of revenue, cost or stock
0%
are ready to train and commit their time
Key finding —The barrier to growth is structural, not attitudinal. Every woman asked to be trained.
Our work
Two programs. One partnership. Built to outlast us.
Program 01 — Flagship
She Builds
Strengthening businesses that already exist.
A four-week program for 15–20 women across knitting & textiles, fish vending, soap-making and poultry. We assess each business, run a hands-on bootcamp on pricing, record-keeping, market access and business modeling, as well as fund the right tools.
Program 02
Pad Power
Keeping girls in school through period protection.
Girls in Kigoma miss school because pads are unaffordable. Pad Power distributes reusable menstrual products, usable for up to 18 months, through CIVISCE's school network. One donation supports attendance well beyond a single term.
How Program 1 works
Four weeks. One plan per woman.
A tight, sequenced programme, designed so CIVISCE can run the next cohort on their own.
Week 1
Assess
Confirm participants with CIVISCE and assess each business individually.
Week 2
Train
A five-day bootcamp on financial literacy, records, product quality and marketing. Each woman builds her own improvement plan.
Week 3
Implement
Put plans into action on the ground and introduce the right tools and equipment.
Week 4
Embed & hand over
Shadow, co-deliver, and hand CIVISCE a complete playbook for future cohorts.
What success looks like
15–20 women complete the programme with an implemented improvement plan.
Every participant shows at least one measurable operational change before we leave.
CIVISCE can run the next cohort independently, using the playbook.
How Program 02 works
Pad Power runs in parallel.
While She Builds strengthens businesses, Pad Power keeps girls in school through every phase of the programme.
Before
Identify schools & quantities, procure pads from ReliefPad before we land.
On the ground
Distribute via CIVISCE's school network and collect feedback from students and teachers.
After
CIVISCE keeps the full distribution model and runs future rounds independently.
Why trust us
Rooted locally.
Led together.
Clear Vision for Change (CIVISCE) is a registered Tanzanian NGO that has worked in Kigoma for years. They know the community, the women, and the real needs — and ran the field assessment that shaped every part of our programme.
“We bring tools, training and funding. They bring trust, relationships and continuity.”
What CIVISCE has already delivered
150+
Girls reached
Menstrual-health programme at Mwananchi Secondary School.
Savings & Loan
Programme live
Running independently in rural Simbo.
Four students from the University of St. Gallen (HSG).
We've each worked in volunteer settings before, and seen how fast impact dissolves when it's imported rather than rooted. WAVE is our answer to that: a small, well-run project that leaves something behind.
Cinzia Bertea
Co-Founder & President
MSc Banking & Finance (HSG). Taught in rural Mongolia; former president of UNIVERSA, HSG's women-in-business network. Background across consulting and finance.
Nicolas Greiner
Co-Founder & Co-President
MSc Banking & Finance (HSG). Volunteer teacher in Mongolia. Background in strategy consulting and private equity.
Viola Suter
Head of Business & Education
MSc Quantitative Economics & Finance (HSG). Head of Education at PIECES in São Paulo. Experience across finance and startups.
Henri Pinar
Head of Operations & Logistics
BA Business Administration (HSG). Volunteer teacher in São Paulo. Leadership across several HSG student associations including ESPRIT St. Gallen and TechClub. Experience across strategy consulting.
100% of donations go directly to Kigoma.
No salaries. No fees. No overhead. All funds buy equipment, materials and menstrual products, sourced and distributed by the WAVE team. Every donor receives a post-project impact report within three months.
It starts small.
It continues beyond us.
Every contribution goes straight to Kigoma — strengthening real businesses and keeping girls in school long after our four weeks on the ground.