Women's Entrepreneurship Day
Written by HopeCore’s Micro Enterprise Department
Village HopeCore International’s (HopeCore) Micro Enterprise program kicked off in 2001 with a group of 12 strong-willed and fervently committed female entrepreneurs dedicated to improving the lives of their families, building sustainable businesses, and becoming financially self-reliant. The program has undergone a tremendously positive trajectory over the past 15 years, having funded 95 Self Help Groups, which at an average of 6 dependents per member means approximately 6,840 community members have been impacted by HopeCore. Since its inception, the program has pivoted its main target subpopulation from vulnerable and poor women to one that aims to remove gender bias and support women and men alike; this is being achieved evidenced that approximately 20 percent of all current loan clients are now men.
Women in Maara Sub-County are often caught in webs of interlocking inequalities and face hardships that contextually men do not always have to face. However, despite the many odds stacked against women in this Sub County, the Micro Enterprise program’s female clients have consistently demonstrated their resourcefulness, industriousness, and courage. Today in the spirit of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (WED) we want to celebrate the achievements made by all of the program’s women, who have lifted themselves out of poverty, improved the living standards of their families, continue to care for their loved ones with dignity and dedication, and have provided constant inspiration for young girls across their communities.
We are proud of all our women clients, staff, and supporters who make our program possible. We also want to recognize four of our female loan clients in particular for their remarkable hard work and progress:
Domitila Karigu from Elshadai 5 Self Help Group Domitila Karigu is a member of HopeCore’s Elshadai 5 Self Help Group. She is married and has 4 dependents. Domitila was lucky to gain technical training in tailoring. Before she joined HopeCore, she had a small business focused on tailoring which was supported in large part by her husband. However, her income was not enough to support her family; although she was earning an income of 5,000 KES (50 USD) per month, her monthly expenditure was 3,000 KES (30 USD) meaning her profit was only 2,000 KES (20 USD). Life was hard for Domitila and her family because she could not afford two meals per day. In the year 2015, she joined Elshadai 5 Self Help Group and by the end of that year, she was given a loan from HopeCore of 30,000 KES (300 USD). With the loan, she expanded her business by buying more materials and she bought a sewing machine. Her monthly profit increased massively and Domitilla has been able to educate her children and feed them with balanced diets. Her repayment rate has never waivered and consistently stands at 100 percent per month.
Mercy Ngugi from Mbogori 1 Self Help Group Mercy Ngugi is a young 29-year-old lady registered in Mbogori 1 Self Help Group. She is married to Eliphas and together they have two healthy children. Mercy did not complete school because she got pregnant when she was 16 and consequently dropped out of school; she got married at the early age of 19. Life was not easy for Mercy because her husband did not have a permanent job to cater to the daily needs of the family. To help support her family, Mercy became a small-scale tea farmer; her monthly income from tea was 930 KES (93 USD) per month. Mercy hoped to become one of the most famous dairy farmers in her community but without enough money to buy a quality dairy cow, this was unachievable. After saving for 1 year, Mercy bought a bull and reared it for four years; she then sold the bull and bought a dairy cow which produced a meager 4 liters of milk per day. In the year 2012, Mercy’s Self Help Group was funded with 360,000 KES (3,600 USD) and each member received 30,000 (300 USD); Mercy was among the beneficiaries. With the loan, she was able to buy an additional dairy cow. Mercy says her dreams started coming true when she began milking the two cows she now owned and was able to sell 12 liters of milk per day. Her monthly income increased to 12,960 KES (129 USD) per month. With this increment, Mercy constructed a zero grazing unit and silage pit, and she bought a land rover for carrying animal feeds. She was able to pay off her loan without a single case of default. Mercy aspires to buy a family car and says that being a school dropout will not stop her from achieving all of her dreams.
Winfred Mukwanjiru from Elshadai 1 Self Help Group Winfred Mukwanjiru is a 59-year-old single mother with 4 dependent children. She joined HopeCore’s Elshadai 1 Self Help Group in the year 2011. She was unskilled and therefore could not access the formal job sector for employment, which is already a saturated market in Kenya; hence, Winfred used to work any casual job she could find in order to provide for her family. She encountered many challenges in feeding, educating, and providing adequate health care for her dependents. Going days without eating a meal and being unable to pay her children’s school fees became a normality for Winfred and this frustrated and saddened her deeply. Prior to receiving financial support, business mentorship, and financial literacy training from HopeCore, Winfred had no permanent source of income or a business that she could rely on. In the year 2012, Winfred was awarded a loan totaling 30,000.00 KES (300.00 USD). With the loan, she purchased a dairy cow. After one year Winfred was able to sell milk to the nearby milk center. The results were impressive with her monthly income becoming 7,000 KES (70 USD). Additionally, the profit earned through the sale of milk enabled her to install electricity in her home and better provide basic necessities such as food, clothing, and medical coverage to her dependents. She has also been able to construct a zero-grazing unit. Winfred is now also able to take care of her elderly mother who is rumored to be above 100 years old.
Cecilia Gacheri from Majira Self Help Group Cecilia Gacheri is 28 years old, she is married, and has 2 children. Cecilia always presented a strong desire to get an education, however, her parents were too poor to afford her school fees. As such she ended up getting married at an early age which unfortunately resulted in Cecilia facing multiple challenges. Even though she was among the poorest members in her village she dreamt about one day becoming a role model in her community despite the perceived impossibility of the idea. Before Cecelia knew about HopeCore, she and her husband were subsistence farmers and neither had a permanent source of income. As a woman, she deeply yearned to be able to feed her family and educate her children but struggled to do so without a stable income. In the year 2014, Cecelia joined Majira Self Help Group with the aim of uplifting her living standards and improving her abilities to meet her family’s basic needs. After a few months of practicing small savings schemes in a group setting, Cecelia received an individual loan of 30,000.00 KES (300 USD) from HopeCore which she decided to invest in coffee farming; a relatively profitable and secure income-generating project in the local area. When she began selling her coffee, her life started transforming for the better. After working hard for 2 years selling coffee, she bought a dairy cow which she uses to provide dairy products to her family. Cecelia received a second loan from HopeCore in 2016 and started another business of buying and reselling macadamia nuts. Although she did not go to school, Cecelia was able to manage her businesses with professionalism and caution which meant she was able to yield an income of approximately 100,000 KES (1000 USD) per month. With the profit she has earned through the development of her enterprises, she has been able to build a concrete house for her family, her children are now in private schools, she bought another dairy cow, and has also constructed a zero grazing unit. Cecilia hopes to open a third business managing a general shop. Her average loan repayment rate in the second loan cycle was 100 percent.
Women are not only at the heart of HopeCore’s mission and vision but the backbone of our community, children, and family life. Congratulations to all the women who make the lives of the people around them better, happier, and safer every day.