If Adam has her way, more women in rural Ghana would be entrepreneurs like her. Adam oversees every step of her latrine businesses from sale to installation and despite cultural and religious norms that typically hold women back, her business is thriving. Adam became the first woman toilet business owner to work with Sama Sama, iDE’s social enterprise in northern Ghana, but she hopes to inspire many more. “We should learn to be independent,” said Adam. “We should learn to go out and work.” As a woman and a devout Muslim, Adam found her relationships with customers and workers to be uniquely challenging. Some did not trust that she could complete the job and others refused to respect her authority as the “boss.” But despite the challenges, her business and customer base have been growing and she encourages other women to follow her lead. “I am now very independent. I don’t look up to anybody,” said Adam. “God willing I can stand alone and do whatever I want.”

iDE established Sama Sama in 2016 and continues to encourage greater participation of women like Adam in the sanitation value chain through the recruitment, engagement, and training of diverse private sector sales and production teams.