Kidundu Friends Church Women Group

Activities:

Retail: maize and beans, firewood and kerosene, dried fish

Initial Beneficiaries:

30 Quaker women

Seed Funding Date:

Fall 2015

These women are members of Kidundu Friends Village Meeting (Lugari Yearly Meeting). They started this group to work together to overcome problems in their community such as poverty and lack of employment opportunities. When they first applied to RSWR in the Fall of 2014 they were not chosen because they did not have enough knowledge to handle a RSWR grant effectively. Instead of giving up, the women asked Field Representative Samson Ababu for training in how to prepare a grant application, and joined a Kenyan government program offering business training to women. When they reapplied to RSWR in Fall 2015, they received a grant!

With their RSWR grant the women divided themselves into three groups to undertake three different businesses. Ten women bought and sold maize and beans, ten women sold firewood and kerosene, and ten women sold dried fish. They chose these businesses because the local economy has a good market for them. Each woman received a loan of $110-147 and repaid they loans in monthly installments over a year. All of the women now have thriving businesses; their monthly incomes have doubled or tripled, and in some cases quadrupled. Their school-going children can now afford lunch and school uniforms.

Beneficiary Stories

Margaret and her family

Margaret and her family were displaced from their home in Njoro during the post-election violence in 2008 and were unable to return. When they came to the village, Margaret joined the Friends Church and Kidundu women’s group. With encouragement from other members, she started a dried fish business with a loan from the RSWR grant. The business is now thriving, and she is able to support her husband and four children.

Rabecca, Single Mother

Rabecca is a single mother of one girl. She left her husband because of his bad behavior. The women in her church group have been very supportive of her and helped her start a dried fish business. The RSWR grant enabled her to expand her business, and she has already repaid the loan. Her daughter has re-enrolled in school.

TEST Towards a better balance, the doing of jubilee justice, we have created channels for pro-active economic development with people in parts of the world, who are struggling for basic needs and moving toward becoming financially self-sustaining.

from rswr mission