Why Mentorship Matters: Inside the HER Working Women Program
Mentorship is one of the least visible, and most valuable, parts of career growth. It's also one of the hardest things to access without an existing network, which is exactly the gap HER Working Women was built to close.
Matching Mentors to Real Needs
Rather than generic career coaching, HER connects women with mentors from the specific sectors Simba Group operates in: energy, hospitality, telecom, and education among others. That sector-specific matching means mentees get advice grounded in the realities of the industry they're actually navigating.
From Mentee to Mentor
One pattern HER's organizers point to often: mentees who go on to launch businesses or step into executive roles frequently return as mentors themselves. That cycle, mentee becomes mentor, is what turns a program into a genuine community rather than a one-time workshop.
Measuring What Matters
By 2024, HER had impacted thousands of women across East Africa. For Dr. Nataliey Bitature, the program's founder, the real measure isn't attendance numbers, it's how many of those women go on to lift someone else, the same Ubuntu principle that shapes the rest of Simba Group.