Campus - 11.06.2026 - 13:00
Four friends are studying at HSG; three of them are about to graduate. “We want to give something back now that we’re still very flexible as students,” says Nicolas Greiner. The HSG Master’s student has founded the association ‘WAVE – Women in Africa Venturing Education’ together with his fellow students Cinzia Bertea, Viola Suter and Henri Pinar. In July 2026, the four of them will travel to the port city of Kigoma in western Tanzania. There, together with the local NGO Clear Vision for Change (CIVISCE), they will launch two programmes for women and girls.
Kigoma is one of the poorest regions in the country: around 49 per cent of the population lives on less than three dollars a day. The students are funding their work through donations from foundations and private individuals; they are covering their own travel and accommodation costs. They will be volunteering on the ground for a month.
The ‘She Builds’ programme supports around 20 small businesses run by women, including soap makers, seamstresses, poultry farmers and fishmongers. ‘Together with CIVISCE, we surveyed the women entrepreneurs to better understand their needs,’ says Bertea. ‘This enables us to address the actual challenges on the ground.’
The support includes training in bookkeeping, financial planning, product development and customer acquisition. During their four-week stay, the students provide intensive coaching to the women entrepreneurs. “Thanks to our different fields of study, we can contribute a range of specialist knowledge,” says Bertea. They also receive equipment such as fridges, sewing machines and incubators to boost their productivity.
The aim is to make the businesses more profitable in the long term and thus improve the women’s economic situation. To ensure the impact continues beyond the students’ departure, WAVE is working with other organisations to explore how the programme can be sustained.
The second programme, ‘Pad Power’, provides schoolgirls with reusable sanitary pads free of charge. ‘Many young women are unable to attend school during their periods because they cannot afford sanitary products,’ explains Bertea. The reusable products are washable and can be used for up to 18 months. This enables the girls to attend school more regularly.
In addition to distributing the products, WAVE is running an awareness campaign in collaboration with CIVISCE: the schoolgirls learn how to use and care for the pads properly and gain knowledge about menstruation and hygiene. CIVISCE delivers the products to schools in the region and supports the young women on the ground.
The four HSG students emphasised that they want to make a tangible difference with the project – to this end, they have put in a great deal of work since December 2025. All the students already have experience in voluntary work: they each spent several weeks teaching English to schoolchildren in Mongolia and Brazil. This was part of PIECES, one of around 150 student societies at HSG.“In doing so, we learnt to remain flexible, no matter how well prepared you are,” says Greiner. “This is exactly the kind of challenge we’re looking for.”
Anyone wishing to donate to the project can find the contact details on the project’s LinkedIn page.
