Kenia / Kitui: Efficacious stories from the Micro- credit program
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The story of Fridah, the Empty Jerican Seller at Mobil petrol station, Kitui town
Fridah is a mother of two kids. In her struggles to meet daily needs she discovered a business opportunity of selling used empty plastic bottles and jericans. Not only did Fridah find her raw materials for sell but also cleaning environment by collecting the empties scattered in the streets of Kitui town. This empty jericans to me was money!, However, to make the income, she needed capital to hire young people to assist in collecting and cleaning the bottles and jericans, secondly to pay County government for a space to display them.
She identified a good marketing space near a petrol station where citizens purchase kerosene for cooking and lighting in the suburb of Kitui town.
Fridah approached KICABA to acquire a loan of KES.10,000 to enable her purchase washing detergents and pay County Governmentl charges. She made sales and paid back her loan in a period of one month. This made her business expand in two months she took another loan of Ksh.10,000, this time engaging two casuals.
The business made great profits that made Fridah go ahead to open a shop as a new business for her husband. Fridah is proud of KICABA and PBF for the support given. She is able to educate her children, cater for food and medical needs and afford her family an outing once a month.
She has provided job opportunities to other families through casual jobs and creation of a job for her husband. Live long PBF!
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Vivian, the second hand clothes seller at her Bondeni Estate
Vivian kanini is married with two kids. Her husband works as a waiter in a restaurant. Vivian too used to work as a waiter in a different restaurant where she earned ksh.4,500 per month. During her employment she discovered that her family was undergoing great financial crisis.Poverrty was tearing them apart
The hard economic times and not able to meet basic needs pushed Vivian to leave her job to begin a business while her husband continued with his restaurant work. The viable business that struck her mind was second hand cloth selling, a common business here in Kitui.
She approached KICABA microcredit for a loan of Ksh.5,000 to begin her business. She began to sell her clothes by moving from door to door in the estate. This enabled her to pay her loan in one month.
Vivian’s idea to have a display room where people could visit and select the cloths was still burning in her mind. This made her acquire another loan of Ksh.10,000 to boost her business and rent a room to display her clothes. Vivian now makes a profit Ksh.16,000 per month that translates to Ksh 192,000 per year. The business is expanding. She is proud and thank PBF for supporting the poor in their effort to exploit their potential.
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The motor bike transport business of Mutua Kimwele around Kitui town
Mutua was interested in ferrying people using motorbike, a transport means here in Kenya referred to as BODABODA. However, due to his poor financial status, he could not afford a motorbike and therefore he hired a motorbike to do the business on an arrangement where he could daily pay KES 400 to the owner, then the surplus remained his own income.
This proved to be very tough given that he had to feed his wife and two of his children. Mutua Approached KICABA for a loan and accessed KES 94,000 enough for a motorbike. He proudly owns a motorbike which he describes as a great achievement. Mutua makes over KES 20,000 a month and has opened a bank account. He aims at purchasing other two motorbikes as an expansion for his business. It is PBF through KICABA that eventually has made my life. Thanks be to God, Mutua exclaims!
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The food kiosk of Samaka at her nearby school
Patricia Samaka is married with three children but the husband has no job. Patricia is the sole bread winner depended upon by her family members on education, medical bills, food and so on. She discovered an opportunity of business near her home of selling cookies.. Patricia prepares cookies for students at St. Mark secondary school which borders her compound. She has taken a couple of loans from PBF from as small as KES 5,000 to KES 20,000 and has made big business. She now makes profits of KES 15,000 monthly after all debts are paid.
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The hair salon of Lina, Katyethoka village, Kitui township
Lina has five kidsand apart from these takes care of her diseased sister’s two children. Lina had so much pressure until she met an officer from KICABA organization who introduced her to SOKO loan. Lina took loans concurrently to boost her salon business. Now her business has expanded. She can now afford to feed her family. Lina earns KES 25,000 a month. What a wonder, she says adding she will live to remember PBF.
Important note:
What about if you hear the story of Kameme muema who has educated her two children to University level using small loans from PBF funds advanced periodically by KICABA? These are true stories of wonder. They are many, wonderful and interesting for not only the people of Kitui County but the World at large.
PBF is becoming the voice of the rural world.