At 22, Busoboozi Rafella is the owner of Royal Beauty Salon in Oyam District, Northern Uganda. But her business is creating more than income, it is creating opportunities for other young women in her community.
Rafella’s path to entrepreneurship was not straightforward. After losing her father at the age of 10 and becoming a mother during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was unable to return to formal schooling and wondered whether the future she had imagined for herself was still possible.
A new path opened when Rafella enrolled at St. Bakhita Vocational Training Centre, where she completed a year of training in hairdressing and entrepreneurship as an Innovation Scholar.
The Innovation Scholar Program is part of a broader collaboration between St. Bakhita, the Powerful Means Initiative at the University of Notre Dame, and courses offered through Notre Dame’s Impact Consulting Minor. Through this partnership, Notre Dame students and St. Bakhita students engage directly with one another, learning across cultures, applying human-centered design and entrepreneurship tools, and working together to explore ideas that can strengthen businesses and expand economic opportunity.
For Rafella, those experiences became tools she could put into action.
In January 2025, she opened Royal Beauty Salon.
Today, Rafella continues to grow and diversify her business, adding products and services such as weaves and nail care while also investing in pigs and goats to create additional sources of income. But perhaps the most powerful part of her story is what has happened next. Rafella has begun creating opportunities for others.
She now trains young women from her community in practical salon skills, giving them experience and a potential pathway toward earning their own income. Her example is also changing what other families imagine is possible. This year, five young women from her community enrolled at St. Bakhita and are preparing for their final examinations.
That ripple effect is at the heart of what we hope to learn from, and contribute to, through the Powerful Means Initiative.
What happens when education doesn't end with the individual who receives it? What becomes possible when skills, confidence, mentorship, and opportunity begin to spread through families and communities?
Rafella’s story offers one answer.
An investment in one young entrepreneur can become an investment in many.