We are so excited to present Rise & Shine Magazine to you. Rise & Shine Magazine is dedicated to women from Africa and across the globe. Rise & Shine Magazine introduces you to the latest news and stories on the exceptional women of Africa and beyond. We bring you human stories highlighting the positive impact of women’s economic empowerment and how it can be a key driver for sustainable global change and the great achievements towards reaching the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. We create networks and showcase remarkable women in business. Our quarterly publication is delighted to provide works of encouragement, motivation and inspiration to women so they can overcome their challenges, unlock their potential, and Rise & Shine in their businesses.

We focus on networking with and showcasing exceptional women in business, as well as those women who would like to realise their business dreams. Women’s Economic Empowerment is one of the core themes of Rise & Shine House. The feature stories and overall themes for future editions will always celebrate African women and their journeys to overcome life’s many challenges. It is also a celebration of the men who support the journey of women’s empowerment.

Some of our activities include empowering women through capacity building in entrepreneurship and business leadership. These activities are intended to unlock their potential, embrace their talents and to dream bigger. We do this through storytelling, sharing experiences, conferences, mentorship and coaching. We use our platforms to eliminate the fears of opening a business and to also provide the toolkits needed to start a business and connect women entrepreneurs to the global market.

We are committed to the promotion of women involved with Cross Border Trade and to help strengthen their partnerships. This can be achieved by assisting women to create a network of opportunities to trade regionally. This is needed more than ever as women-owned businesses were completely shut down due to the closure of borders in the pandemic period of Covid-19. Rise & Shine House continues to collaborate with our international partners to improve the work environment for our sisters in the Cross Border Trade to expand their products, not only on a regional, but also on an international market scale.

Empowering women through tourism is another core pillar of Rise & Shine House. We must fully recognize the importance of tourism in enabling women. Tourism is one of the industries that has been most impacted by the pandemic, with unprecedented restrictions being placed on international travel. The shutdowns have caused local and regional economies to be pushed to the brink of collapse. One positive is that over-exploited wilderness areas had a chance to recover. From a women’s empowerment perspective, the dramatic contraction of the tourism industry is particularly regrettable.

Prior to the pandemic, tourism had been identified as a powerful force enabling the pursuit of the gender parity agenda and in the creation of meaningful economic opportunities for women. Nonetheless, tourism provides workforce participation opportunities, which in turn can inspire or empower women to begin their own enterprises. Tourism can lift entire local economies – it brings an injection of foreign currency and often, governments will respond by improving or adding infrastructure, such as roads and regional airports. Tourism can also act as a stimulus to entrepreneurship at a micro-enterprise level: craft shops, cafés and service companies all find ready markets among tourists and the hotels and lodges they stay in. Again, many of these roles are aligned with women’s strengths.

Tourism can revive or reinvigorate indigenous cultures – again, many aspects of the expression of cultural heritage fall within the traditional sphere of women’s activities. By promoting untapped tourism opportunities in Africa will allow us to create more attractions and enable women to gain from tourism. We have a vast local, continental and global network that will allow us to connect our clients and audience to the larger public and achieve our goals.

We wish to extend our gratitude to our supporters. We recognize their encouragements and words of wisdom. Thank you for believing in our dream and helping us to make it a reality.

Yours Faithfully

Dr Florence Nisabwe
CEO and Founder of Rise & Shine House