Salone Rising Micro-Enterprise is a program of the Harwell Family Foundation that supports promising small business owners in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Our mission is to activate these entrepreneurs to sustain and grow their businesses; to earn a living wage and more, and thereby help support their families; and to contribute to the development of their community. Our strategy is to facilitate micro grants and small-to-medium business loans that can help participants address short term goals, and provide educational and savings opportunities, including training and mentorship, that help them build toward long-term success. While many businesses will remain small, others may have the potential to grow to include additional employees and locations. We encourage community initiatives that have been locally conceived.

Owning a micro-business provides motivated individuals with self-directed economic solutions. Entrepreneurs know their own skills and interests, and work hard to offer them to others. Over time, they become known for the goods and services they provide.

Those living in Sierra Leone often make cloth and clothing, prepare hot food, or buy spices, medicines, rice and other needed items at wholesale, then resell them in their communities. Some offer a unique skill such as weaving, cooking or iron forging. Goods and services are sold from their own stalls in markets, from their homes, or door to door.

To do this, we

• Screen applicants and select qualified individuals,
• Facilitate small grants to support their specific business improvement ideas
• Monitor and assess weekly and monthly progress
• Provide ongoing and specialized mentoring and professional development resources
• Create additional business opportunities when possible, and • Support the development of their local community initiatives.

Our participants are invited to tell their success stories to the camera, as well as their challenges; the brief films that result can help us connect them with additional investors, educators, and professionals.

“Entrepreneurship development in Sierra Leone can create large-scale employment opportunities, and promote balanced regional economic development.... It can also reduce the concentration of economic power, stimulate wealth creation and distribution, leading to improvement in living standards and facilitate overall development.”

- Zainab Tunkara Clarkson, International Development Consultant and Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (WED) Country Ambassador for Sierra Leone