Great Hope
Self Help Group Great Hope started in May 2017 with 19 members (17 women and 2 men) and all living in the Mtwapa region, around the Kenya Care offices. This is where the group have their group meetings. The Great Hope started together with the Jitoe Group and the introduction lessons were given to the two groups together. The groups were not too big, so this worked quite well. During the 4-year program 5 members left the group, for various reasons. In this group, we also had one couple. But this did not work and unfortunately both husband and wife left the group early.
Although the group is not very big, they are very active. Some of the members are employed, while others have their own businesses. They took loans and they never missed paying back on time. Mwanahamisi Shebani is the leader of this group. Like Kibibi from Jerito, she also was in another group earlier (Wema) and she recruited the members for this group. In the beginning she was very shy and not really acting as a leader but over time she has grown and has developed very strong leadership skills. She has been able to unite the group as well as make them think about their future early so that they prepared properly before they left the Kenya Care program. She motivated the group to apply for a government grant of Ksh 125.000, which they want to use to start a group business, most probably keeping chicken. The group also saved very well in their group account. When they graduated the balance in their account was Ksh. 149.000.
As they started together with Jitoe, they also wanted to graduate together. The graduation party was a great success. This time we also received several visitors from the government who were very much impressed by the achievements of the women of this group.
