Educate, Feed & Protect Children in Kibera, Kenya

In our last report, we shared with you our efforts in launching a new initiative to help empower parents and other members of our community through business training and lending. We are excited to report on the progress of this work, which commenced one year ago.

At the outset of the program, we recruited 10 participants to join our project. Nine of these were parents of our nursery school children and one was a young woman from our own Rescue Center. All of those recruited participated in the initial training and seven have continued to participate in the program - building their businesses, repaying loans, saving, and attending refresher trainings.

The seven active participants received a total of Kshs 30,000 (~USD$300) in loans, of which 86% of loaned funds have already been repaid (including three participants who have repaid loans in full and four women who are continuing to make payments). All of these participants have started and/or expanded businesses which they continue to run today. Throughout the loan repayment period, these seven participants have also managed to save a total of Kshs 5,700. Below is the status of active participants:

• Peris received start-up funding in the amount of Kshs 5,000, which enabled her to open up a local food vending which is still in operation. Peris has been able to repay her loan in full and has saved Kshs 2,500.
• Adelight received a loan of Kshs 3,000, which she used to start a business selling corn and onions. Profits from her business are used to pay for rent and food. Adelight has repaid Ksh 2,500 and has saved Ksh 1,500.
• Rose received a loan of Kshs 7,000, which she used to improve her auto shop by restocking spare parts. Rose has repaid Kshs 4,000 to date. 
• Susan received a loan of Kshs 3,000 to start a business selling porridge. The business is doing well and Rose has repaid Kshs 2,800 and has saved Kshs 200.
• Beatrice received a loan of Kshs 3,000 to start an egg selling business. Having repaid the loan in full, Beatrice has been able to start saving, with a Kshs 1,500.
• Pius received a loan of Kshs 5,000 to expand his food vending business. Increased sales allowed Pius to employ his wife in the business. He has repaid Kshs 4,500 and saved another Kshs 4,500, which he hopes to utilize to further expand his business. 
• Veronica received a loan of Kshs 4,000 to set up a nail salon. She has repaid the entire loan and her business is doing well. She is hoping to expand her service offerings this year.

We are excited about the acheivements of our participants and our currently exploring ways to grow the program to reach additional parents.