Best Ayiorwoth is Improving Female Literacy in Uganda

Best Ayiorwoth’s passion for social entrepreneurship has been from a very early age and she has always had the zeal to make a positive change in her community.

At 19, in 2011, she founded Girls Power Micro-Lending Organization (GIPOMO), a microfinance company that supports mothers and their daughters.

Ayiorwoth started off by giving monthly micro loans to women in northern Uganda, running small businesses with her own savings. As a condition of the loans, the mothers sent their daughters to school.

Best is from a family of seven, with four sisters and two brothers, but she lost her both parents when she was 8, this was the incidence that pushed her to become a social entrepreneur, because she could easily relate to the problems that people with similar experiences face.

GIPOMO has since then helped put hundreds of girl children in school and the number continues to increase. In 2014, Ayiorwoth won USh1 million (US$400) at the FINA Africa Enterprise Business Challenge. She also bagged US$25,000 as a 2013 winner of the Anzisha Prize.

Best believes that age is just a number: Her company has helped hundreds of women start and expand their businesses and enabled many girls to attend school. She remains relentless in granting girls a chance to receive adequate education to realize their full potential.