Turning Exclusion into an Enterprise

Juliet graduated from ISS in 2006, following the India Track of Universalising Socio-Economic Security for the Poor (Post Graduate Diploma) that allowed her to study field interventions in India. Through fieldwork with SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association) and Kerala’s state-led Poverty Alleviation program, Kudumbashree, she witnessed how trust, vision, and grassroots organizing could bring real and sustainable change. “Inspired by SEWA, I began introducing the concept of women meeting and saving together,” she says. Juliet helped mobilize 30 women in Ndiba village, a project that would become a much larger movement.

Today, Juliet is the Founding Director of New Cares Ltd, a Ugandan-based social enterprise that dismantles the barriers women face in accessing resources. The initiative has grown from that small group of 30 to over 6,000 women. “Our core emphasis is on enhancing market access for female coffee farmers,” Juliet explains. “We’re also implementing innovative development solutions through ventures in renewable energy, fashion, and media.” From her current base in Milan, Italy, Juliet coordinates with field teams in Uganda and works to build strategic partnerships across the EU, aiming to integrate these women-led groups into national and international value chains, especially in the coffee sector.

Reflecting on her journey, Juliet says ISS equipped her with the lens to see social justice not just as equity, but as dignity, participation, and agency. “To me, social justice means enabling the most marginalized, especially rural women, to access opportunities, resources, and dignity. It is about redesigning systems that have long excluded certain voices.”