There is a beauty inside.
WILL YOU UNLOCK IT?
There is a beauty inside.
WILL YOU UNLOCK IT?
More than a bracelet,
it’s a bond.
More than a bracelet,
it’s a bond.
The Unlock-it
Bangle Bracelet
The Unlock-it Bangle Bracelet
THE MEANING BEHIND
You hold something beautiful.
It may be a strength you have yet to discover. The grace to handle life’s ups and downs. Or a glow that radiates from within.
The Unlock-it bracelet was inspired by the Ugandan women who handcraft it. Their stories are the heart of Akola—and woven into every bracelet.
Twin crystals represent the bond between wearer and maker—a connection shared by women around the world. The magnetic clasp opens to reveal your key to unlocking your inner beauty. It will be there whenever you need it.
Will you unlock it?
Strong
Brave
Joy
Glow
Hope
Grace
Peace
A STORY BY AKOLA
I am Tappy Namusobya Namukose 43, married, a mother of four children and a grandmother of one. Fourteen years ago, I had to make a profound decision with my family to start a life in a new community in Nabukosi. This was after my husband lost a job. He was the primary caretaker of the family and my role was to wait until he provided. Life in town became very challenging and unbearable.
Transitioning to the village life became very difficult. I desired to find work and support my family but this was impossible because working opportunities were rare and available only to the educated women and men.
I discovered that I was more than a dependent partner, but a mother and a wife who can equally contribute towards the welfare of my family. With the support of my husband we started farming in the community to be able to provide for our family, but our earnings could only enable us provide basic necessities.
In 2010, Akola gave me an opportunity to work in my community. I was not only presented with a working opportunity but also a chance to uncover my strength and tap into responsibilities that others believed predominantly belonged to a certain category of people. I have worked as a partner with my husband to educate our children, build a house, and I recently completed three rental houses.
My strength comes from understanding that regardless where my story started, I have within me what it takes to change it!
Back to the Strong Unlock It Bracelet
A STORY BY AKOLA
I never knew what I was capable of accomplishing until I gave myself an opportunity to try. My name is Lydia. I am a 36-year-old wife, mother of four children, a community leader and happily part of the Akola family.
My employment with Akola started in 2015 and I was involved in jewelry production. While I enjoyed this role, I soon wanted to push myself and try a skill that I had watched others work on from afar – working with cow horn. Horn work is a challenging, highly-technical area within the company, and I wanted to see if I could do it. While I did not get the promotion after my first attempt, I tried again and got the role after my second interview. My team members and leaders look at the products that I work on with admiration and gave me feedback to help me work with precision. It has been a humbling experience of exploring my capabilities and working on different products that I would never have been able to do had I given myself out to fear.
As I continued to attain personal and professional growth, I desired to share my learnings with the women in my community. I was never satisfied with keeping what I know to myself. In 2017, I was entrusted to be leader in my Zabefu community (Jinja, Eastern Uganda). I decided to take on this role, not only for myself, but because other women had believed in my ability to walk alongside them. I had to come face to face with my insecurities and limitations to be able to stand and defend the different causes that we are passionate about.
Being brave is a lifetime journey, I haven’t mastered it but I am not about to give up. I am brave and I am unlocking who I am every day!
Back to the Brave Unlock It Bracelet
A STORY BY AKOLA
Life has taught me that I cannot change anything that happened in my life but I can choose to find joy in circumstances that others consider ordinary. I delight in being a mother, a sister, a wife, workmate and a friend.
I live in Nabukosi village, Jinja. This place has been my home since I was a child. It is a peaceful and loving community that has nurtured me. I am happily married and a mother to five girls and one boy. Besides working with Akola, I am a farmer and a leader within my community.
My journey with Akola started in 2011 and it has been a lifetime blessing for me and my family! As a mother I take pride in knowing that I am able to take my children to the hospital when they are sick, provide food for them when they are hungry, and keep them in school. I find unexplainable joy in each of my children. They all bring a special kind of joy to me.
Basing on my experience, joy cannot be attached to anything that I have or do not have. Even in the most imperfect situations, I choose to remain joyful because when I look deep inside me, there is always that one string of joy that I can cling to.
Back to the Joy Unlock It Bracelet
A STORY BY AKOLA
I have been part of the Akola family since 2017. It has been a journey of self-discovery and redefining myself. After dropping out of school, I was left hopeless and miserable. I did not know what to do with myself and my already struggling family.
As a woman, Akola has given me a chance to rebuild myself by working on products that not only change my story but also ignite the beauty of another woman. Through the different programs, I am coming to terms with myself, appreciating the beauty within me and embracing my story the way it is.
A few months ago, I was identified as one of the best performers at Akola, and I had a chance to represent our brand in an exhibition in Uganda. This helped to know that my glow cannot be contained any more. I must let it out, for me and the people around me.
Each day, I aim to improve myself and support my colleagues with the skills that I have perfected. In order to be able to do that for others, I had to search within me and deal with myself. Glow is what defines me now!
Back to the Glow Unlock It Bracelet
A STORY BY AKOLA
Nothing gives me hope like waking up early to get to work, because this work fuels my dreams for the future. My dreams for my children to achieve the highest levels of education, for myself to purchase land and construct a home for my family as well as to start my own restaurant business one day, and my dream that Akola will grow.
Before joining Akola, hopelessness defined my life. I had no job and was going through many hardships as I took care of my two children by myself after we had separated from their father, and I was losing hope about the future prospects of life. Becoming one of Akola’s twelve pioneer members in 2010 greatly changed my views of the future and my abilities to shape my own. Although I am an uneducated woman, I have knowledge and strength that can empower others because of Akola’s encouragement.
In recent years, Akola has especially helped me find hope during a time of extreme uncertainty. In April of 2017, I suffered a stroke. I was in a coma in a hospital ward and couldn’t move my right side. I couldn’t imagine what my new life would look like when I left the hospital. I was able to continue to work at Akola, contributing as a packaging team member as I regain movement in my right side. I now have a new job as a holistic wellness assistant for Akola Academy, helping support my fellow Akola women.
My daily philosophy and a message to others is to derive and define your victories on a daily basis. Contemplating your limitations will always keep you blind to what you have. As a person who suffered from a stroke, walking, smiling, moving my hand and being able to work are some of my daily victories. However small it may be, counting your wins will make the pursuit of hope more meaningful.
Back to the Hope Unlock It Bracelet
A STORY BY AKOLA
The pain of rejection knowing that you were unloved surrounded my childhood. As an adult, I aim to open up my heart to love and embrace people the way they are.
I was born in Busegula, Jinja. My father had five wives and 24 children. He passed when I was young and I did not get a chance to see or know him. Our mother remarried and the responsibility of taking care of us remained in the hands of our aunties and step sisters. The struggles and failures that I went through in my life cannot define me anymore. Now, I am married and co-lead a fellowship with my husband who is a pastor.
In 2017, I joined Akola as a jewelry producer. This job opportunity has not only enabled me to support myself and family but connected me to a community of amazing women who are on a journey of transformation. I delight in serving them as a wellness officer. We celebrate in moments of joy and cry in times of trials and tribulations. Their success is my success and so are their struggles.
The struggles that I was exposed to enabled me to have a different perspective on life. I am challenged to love, listen and notice what is not said by mere words and that is my understanding of grace.
Despite what life throws at us, we can choose to show grace and love to each other.
Back to the Grace Unlock It Bracelet
A STORY BY AKOLA
I was born in a Ugandan village. Thirteen years ago I relocated to Nabukosi, Jinja to start a new journey in life and in 2011 I joined Akola. My name is Lydia Namulondo. I am 33 years old, happily married and a proud mother of four children.
As a parent, wife and working woman, I am confronted with daily situations that can make me anxious. These were worsened by the COVID-19 outbreak, when so many people were struggling. Movement was prohibited. Our children were out of school for two years. And access to basic needs like health care was a nightmare because we had to seek the approval of the local leaders to give us travel permits.
This time tested our strength, togetherness, and friendship as a community. We had to relearn the basic principles of parenting and share the little we had. We rallied behind whomever needed support and rebuilt the families that were breaking apart.
During this time, I was the only working member in my immediate and extended family. With this came the responsibility to provide for them all as well as my community at large. At times, I failed. It was very difficult for me to tell a friend who had come for support that I was unable to do anything about their situation. I mean, turning away a mother who wanted to borrow 5,000/= ($1.4USD) to feed her hungry family or seek medical treatment for a sick family member simply because I didn’t have anymore to share was devastating. Some people would understand. Others would be broken and bitter towards me.
I played my part while embracing my limits. I gave support each time I had the ability, but also made sure I explained my lack of resources when I was unable. This helped me to be at peace with myself and the people around me.
When I envision the kind of future that I want, I choose to create a place that my children and husband can comfortably call home while simultaneously creating peace within the community that we are a part of.
Back to the Peace Unlock It Bracelet
Our name means “she works” in a local Ugandan dialect. We provide life-changing job opportunities through vertically-integrated manufacturing, employing women in Uganda to make each Akola piece.
LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR MISSION
Use left/right arrows to navigate the slideshow or swipe left/right if using a mobile device
