Caroline's Story

From a full-time auto mechanic and workshop manager to the founder of her own girls' health awareness initiative in Uganda, Caroline Birungi is a natural leader.    

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In her full-time profession, Caroline manages the day-to-day operations of a safari vehicle workshop for Classic Africa Safaris in Entebbe, Uganda. She manages their stores, oversees their health and safety protocols, supervises vehicle check-ups and maintenance, and is the inspirational leader in building teamwork and camaraderie of the entire team. 

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Choosing a career in the auto industry is considered a nontraditional path for many, but this was especially the case for Caroline as a woman. Through her training, she was the only woman in many of her classes. While she says that this brought on some nerves at first, it didn’t stop her from achieving her goals. Caroline's classmates and instructors saw her determination and quickly caught on to the fact that she knew very well what she was doing. She has no regrets and loves her job at CAS as the workshop supervisor.

 

Success doesn't come without hard work, though, and Caroline had to go through many challenging experiences as a woman in the automotive industry in Uganda, where many people refused to believe she could accomplish her goals.

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Caroline says that her job has made her strong and independent and that more females are needed in the industry because they can do just as much as men, and the ladies always bring something special to the industry.

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Caroline Birungi founded the Jascar Foundation with a clear mission: providing essential menstrual health education to young girls in Uganda.

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Caroline's commitment stems from her own difficult past. For three years, she used polythene bags as underwear and fresh banana leaves as makeshift pads until a friend taught her to use old clothes for improvised sanitary pads. Experiencing early menstruation while living with an unsupportive, heavily drinking grandmother, Caroline was forced to take care of herself from a young age. Her grandmother made it clear that her money was strictly for "drinking," leaving Caroline to manage her own needs, including clothing, school fees, and medication. This challenging upbringing inspired Caroline to empower other girls, promoting education, providing reusable sanitary pads, and combatting the stigma associated with menstruation.

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Through the distribution of sanitary pads, Caroline aims to enable girls to concentrate on and complete their education, ultimately narrowing the gender gap in school enrollment and retention. As part of this initiative, Caroline is actively working to train female teachers in schools to produce sanitary pads from locally available and sustainable materials.