Providing a small amount of loan to poor people especially women can be all that is needed to lift people out of extreme poverty. Women in our region have been the bedrock of their families and wider community due to their ingenuity and flexibility to start small businesses which play a pivotal role in their family’s livelihoods and progress.
GENCAD International’s project, Empowering Women Through Micro-loan, has so far benefited 75 women in Mandera county. Still, many needy women are on our books waiting for their chance. Those who have received the loan have continued to repay their loan and at the same time support their families.
One such woman is Fatuma, and this is her story.
Fatuma a 36-year-old mother of seven children fled from Wajir county to Mandera county because of clan conflict in 2013. Fatuma who was married at a young age and had no education. Her husband could not get a manual job, and there was no much support around for the internally displaced persons (IDP) living on the edge of Elwak town. The fear of watching her children sleep on a hungry stomach forced Fatuma to beg on the streets of Elwak to feed her children. Fatuma was worried about how they would bring up their children.
When Gencad visited the village on the microfinance project, Fatuma was luckily selected to be one of the beneficiaries in a group of 10 women. She took an income generating loan of Sh15,000. She used this money to buy and sell readymade garments in the neighbouring houses. She went door to door and worked hard to save money. Confident about the sales and her hard work, she took a second income-generating loan after repaying the first one. Steadily her daily earnings grew until she opened a grocery shop in town. According to her, she is making a decent monthly income of sh30,000 which she is using to repay the loan and attend to her family’s needs.
Thank you for enabling Fatuma and other women to lift their families out of extreme poverty.
Fatuma is an inspiration to many today. A role model to other IDPs in Elwak and she is her group’s treasurer. Fatuma recently felt most rewarded when her eldest daughter joined secondary school.
“Thanks to the loans GENCAD extended to me time, and again, I was able to give my children a decent education. Today people respect our family, and I am grateful,” she says.
I most sincerely thank you for your donation and support, and we are committed to doing all we can to improve the life chances of other women in similar situation. Thank you, and May God bless you.