By Evalyne Ndirangu
A Ugandan founder’s race to win $10,000 in Paris
Hellen Munyasa’s journey to bagging 10,000$ in Paris during the Youth Ecopreneur Awards was anything but straightforward. With her visa arriving less than eight hours before departure, she pushed through an exhausting journey to pitch for an opportunity that could transform her business and the livelihoods of many women and youth in Kampala. This is her inspiring story.
When Hellen Munyasa stepped on stage in Paris earlier this year and walked away with $10,000, it was the climax of a nerve-wracking and high-stakes 48 hours, and a journey that began in 2024.
She had only received her visa to travel from Kampala to Paris less than eight hours before her flight, leaving her with an absurd schedule that would have given many an overwhelming amount of anxiety. She arrived in Paris on Tuesday, the same day she was due to pitch. And as if this wasn’t enough, when she finally arrived in Paris, she was met by 3 hours of traffic and had to rush from the airport straight to the pitching venue. There was barely any time to breathe, let alone rest, change or prepare for the pitch.
However, later that evening, after what must have been an incredibly exhausting two days, she stepped on the stage, delivered her pitch, and walked away with $10,000.
To understand what drove Helen to push through such gruelling odds, we must retrace her footsteps.
Hellen runs Helton Traders Limited, a company that collects plastic bottle waste and transforms it into high quality sewing thread for Uganda’s textile industry, while creating income for women and youth waste collectors in the country. In the process, Helton solves a supply gap in Uganda’s textile industry as textile manufacturers get a locally produced alternative to imported raw materials, and also fighting Kampala’s plastic pollution crisis.
In 2024, Hellen met a founder that had bagged the Youth Ecopreneur Awards, and for a manufacturer with her sights on expanding beyond Uganda, she decided she was going to bag it herself, capturing:
- A $10,000 prize – more capital meant more machinery, more production capacity, more plastic diverted from Kampala’s streets, and more income for the people whose livelihoods are connected to the Helton’s.
- Access to a competitive accelerator run by some of the most influential institutions such as World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), International Trade Centre (ITC), G20 Global Land Initiative, and ChangeNow.
- A platform inside the institutions shaping intellectual property protection, trade routes and market access.
She followed the programme across its social media platforms, keeping an eye out for the next application window, and when applications opened in 2025, she had been ready for a while..
Chosen from more than 1,500 global applications, she secured her place, advanced through all three stages of the programme, and eventually got her name on the finalist list. All Hellen needed now was the visa to pitch on stage in France.
Unfortunately, Hellen’s visa was not approved on her first attempt, and she therefore missed her initial flight. In addition, with less than 10 days to go before the competition, the prospect of pitching in Paris was beginning to look increasingly unlikely, and Hellen could have accepted that pitching in Paris simply wasn’t going to happen. After all, that’s what many people told her, she couldn’t appeal in time… she couldn’t get another appointment at the Embassy in time….
Not Hellen though. She wasn’t ready to give up, and so she appealed, reached out to her networks, and fought to find a way forward.
Then, at the eleventh hour, things began looking up.
On Monday, 30 March, Hellen went to the Embassy knowing she might still walk away without a visa. This time though, she got it, but only less than eight hours before her flight.
There was no leisurely afternoon to prepare for an international trip. She had to rush home to pack, and rush yet again to the airport and catch her flight to Paris which the organisers had worked to secure, helping her get there in time for the competition. And after more than six hours in the air, she finally landed in Paris on Tuesday, 31 March. The same day she would be pitching.
However, Paris wasn’t quite ready to make things easy for her. She spent nearly three hours caught in traffic, and without getting to her hotel for the chance to rest or freshen up, she headed straight to the venue to pitch.
After the uncertainty, the missed flight, the last-minute visa, the long-haul journey and hours spent in traffic, which would have paralysed many, Hellen took to the stage and walked away with the $10,000 prize.
For Hellen, the ambition has always been bigger than simply running a successful manufacturing business. She wasn’t just fighting to get herself to Paris and get $ 10,000, she was fighting for what the opportunity could unravel for her business. It meant the possibility of more machinery and greater production capacity for Helton. More plastic collected and diverted from Kampala’s streets. More opportunities and income for the women and young people who collect the waste that keeps Helton running. As well as another step towards the bigger vision Hellen has for her company. The cash prize represented more capacity for a company already proving that environmental problems can become economic opportunities.
And even with the odds stacked against her, Hellen fought all the way through.
There are many entrepreneurs like Hellen, building businesses around problems that extend far beyond themselves. Across our ecosystem, women are working to improve access to feminine hygiene products, develop affordable fertilisers for smallholder farmers, expand educational opportunities for young girls and tackle numerous other challenges in their communities.
But pursuing missions such as these aren’t always easy. There are funding gaps, difficult decisions, many closed doors and moments when the obstacles seem to outweigh the possibilities. Grit, perseverance and optimism might be part of the job description, but this doesn’t mean entrepreneurs should have to face and figure everything out alone.
At M-Kyala, we believe women entrepreneurs deserve spaces where they can talk through the challenges they face, get practical guidance, and work out their next steps. If you’re building a business and could use a sounding board, consider applying for our Women’s Office Hours. It’s an opportunity to sit down with us, one-on-one, and talk through the specific challenges you’re navigating.