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34 Action Sampson
How an ordinary day turned
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38 Youth and Duty
Billy Morin brings youthful
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chief of Enoch Cree Nation
46 Fashion Conscience
A social entrepreneur tailors a
clothing-based business to lift
up lives of Ugandan women
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52 Butters Makes it Better
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Butters rounds out 10 years
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56 Ten Great Chefs,
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NAIT staffers reminisce about
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58 Recipe
The RJB: Rod Butters’ take on
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11 Technofile
Technology, innovation,
NAIT news and more
 Lorna Mutegyeki
is the founder
and owner of
Msichana, a
fashion-based
social enterprise.

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 STORY BY
AMANDA STADEL
PHOTOS BY
LEIGH KOVESY

Fashion
Conscience
L
How Lorna Mutegyeki
tailored her business plan
to improve the lives of
women in Uganda
orna mutegyeki’s business is rooted in her childhood.
The owner of Msichana – which makes custom dresses, skirts,
jackets and jumpsuits – grew up in Uganda in a middle-class,
comfortable household. But she was well aware of violence
against women in her community and how it left them ostracized
and disadvantaged.
“Since I was little, I’ve had this dream that I wanted a way
for women to not depend on charity, to be independent,” says
Mutegyeki, who moved from the east African country to Canada
13 years ago for university.
After working as a business analyst in the energy sector, she
was struck one day by the possibility that fashion could help make
her dream a reality. She came across a statistic showing that 75 per
cent of the industry is composed of women, making it a natural fit.
What’s more, since it was always her mother’s vocation, it was a
field she knew intimately.
Mutegyeki felt she could operate differently in an industry
often known for exploitation. She envisioned Msichana, named
for the Swahili word for “young woman,” as a business in which
marginalized women could become self-sufficient.
In 2017, Mutegyeki left her job and, with help from NAIT,
began life as a social entrepreneur.

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 Lorna Mutegyeki
designs clothes
to suit her
clients’ needs
and preferences.

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 Re-humanizing the industry
Msichana straddles two continents and transcends cultures. Women
in Uganda create bold, customized clothing designed for women of all
cultures “who are not afraid of standing out,” says Mutegyeki. She meets
her clients to learn preferences, take measurements and let them see
and touch the vibrant fabrics she sources from Africa.
“We want people to experience the culture and get to know the brand.”
Though not formally trained, Mutegyeki designs most of the clothes.
She makes sketches that she sends to her mother, a fashion designer in
the Ugandan capital of Kampala, who uses them to teach local women
sewing basics.
“The goal is for them to first of all have a skill that they can make a
good living out of,” says Mutegyeki, “but our big dream is for them to
go out and start their own businesses.” The women are also learning a
variety of skills required to run their own businesses and benefit from
career guidance from Mutegyeki’s mother, an industry veteran.
Customers get progress updates and can learn about the women
making their clothes – a relationship that Mutegyeki feels contributes
to her efforts to “re-humanize” the clothing industry.

Enabling the economy

Starting in July 2017, Mutegyeki began to receive help from
NAIT’s Acceleration Services team, recommended to her by
“Trying to lift business-minded friends.

women up and give Social enterprise isn’t the team’s primary focus but members
felt that working with Msichana would yield important insights into
them more power services industry wants and needs, helping companies to become more
innovative and productive. NAIT staff helped Mutegyeki define her
and raise their target market and value proposition and even hosted and helped stage
a fashion show on campus last December to mark the launch of the
socioeconomic business. More than 100 people attended. In March, the company moved
into an incubator space in St. Albert known as the Collective.
status – that really While some might say her business is too specialized,
NAIT acceleration services consultant Ryan Theriault disagrees.
appeals to me.” “The feeling with entrepreneurs is that if they focus too hard on a
– PENNY SALMON niche their market will be too small,” he says. In fact, it’s usually the
MSICHANA CUSTOMER
opposite. “If you focus on that niche, that’s what creates that vitality
and the uniqueness in what you are offering, and that’s what people
gravitate towards.”
Mutegyeki is finding that her concept resonates with professional,
fashion-forward women.
“Trying to lift women up and give them more power and raise their
socioeconomic status – that really appeals to me,” says repeat customer
Penny Salmon. She also appreciates the company’s fashion sense. “I like
the fact that each piece is different – nobody else is going to have a dress
just like this.”
As she settles into her new space and life as a full-time entrepreneur,
Mutegyeki hopes other women will feel the same way – for her benefit
and that of women in Uganda.
“I am trying to prove that a business can be successful and have a
good impact on people,” she says. “My goal is to have this model work,
and then no business has any excuse for doing otherwise.”

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