Ebenezer

Ebenezer

Majengo / Village 10 km north of Mtwapa.

Started in 2011 with 24 single mothers and 19 of them graduated in 2016. One member died.
In this group, 4 women who took tailoring lessons (given by Kenya Care) and these women all got a job in that area. The other women started their own small businesses, mostly in vegetables/fruit and cooking food. This group also started a bakery project and have a vegetable shamba together.

The progress in this group was much higher compared to the Amani group in terms of unity, stigma etc. Also, several of the members became good leaders. They not only learned the advantage of saving as an individual, but they saved much more as a group. At the end of the program, they had around 125.000 Ksh in their groups account. After their graduation this group continued together and were able to get a governmental loan, because they could show their credibility.
One of their members – Kibibi – later recruited other HIV/aids positive mothers for a new group – Jerito and developed herself as a real leader. The involvement of graduated members in later groups has really helped to improve the programme.