Change a Girl's Life Through Microentrepreneurship

Dear donors, thank you for your relentless support. We cannot express enough gratitude for what you are doing for hundreds of women and girls in Fako and Ndian.

Magdaline is one of the 119 active participants we are assisting with your support.

This is a bit of her story.

Magdaline is an internally displaced woman from Ediki, one of the hardest-hit villages of the South West region. She used to provide for her family by keeping a small roadside restaurant selling rice and beans and other local foods. She is a mother of 5 with a set of twins inclusive and her husband has a disability caused by a bike accident six years ago. His right leg was damaged, and he uses crutches to walk. When the war became unbearable, Magdaline’s family came to Buea in 2019 and started living with her sick mother-in-law.

Immediately she came in with her own family she assumed the role of the Head of House as the adult who was healthy and strong to fend for the house.

“My husband is a very strong and hardworking man. He really feels bad when I assist him in doing something. Though in this condition, he still struggles and follows me to any nearby farm just to see the farm encourage me and be satisfied. Sometimes he will try to help me weed the farm but the pain won’t permit him to do it for long” says Magdaline.

Magdaline has 7 persons depending on her for food, shelter and medication. She started a business in a student residential when she came to Buea. In April, COVID 19 forced the government to shut down the school. Since her target population were students, she had to resort to farming for survival. Unfortunately, she did not have any land, and she had to spend money on renting and setting up the farm. “This was really expensive and too strenuous for me as a woman because I could not receive any extra help neither from my husband nor from my children because the oldest is just 13 years old” Said Magdaline. Fortunately, a relative offered his land for her to farm on for free, though it was not very fertile and full of stones. She farms a small yield of leafy vegetables. 

She was making about 25000frs a month (45$). This money was used for daily expenses of the house, especially on drugs for her sick husband and mother-in-law. Magdaline loves farming in all domains. From her little savings, she managed to buy two piglets and started rearing them, but only with grass and household waste because she could not afford feed.

In August 2020, our team met Magdaline during a door-to-door identification. She met the vulnerability criteria and we assisted her with a business grant of 30.000frs (54$) and encouraged her to set-up a business with faster turnover. With this amount, she started cooking local fritters and beans (street food) in her quarter.  Once in a while, Tanyi (her husband) helps to sell for her when she cooks in the morning and leaves for the farm. The new business helped her reduce stress and also assisted her in feeding the children. “I don’t rely 100% on this business for survival because it will strain the business and it will collapse”, said Magdaline. I still go to the farm, work for people in the afternoon hours and I have my small groundnut farm that I cultivated for my children to eat.

For the monthly follow up in September, Magdaline had a working capital of 33,775 FRS and a profit of 7,400 FRS. Though her profits are low, this could be because she was still struggling to gain the market and consolidate. In October, her capital and profits had doubled. She had 75,000 FRS (about 136 $) with a monthly profit of 15,000 FRS (27$) from the street food, while keeping her farming profits.

She is not among the best performing participants of the program, but we see immense merit in how she is handling a large family. She has great potential. She also has great responsibilities and agency. We do not have any doubt that her profits will keep growing in the coming months, and she will qualify for more support. We will keep you posted.

Thanks so much for economically empowering Magdaline and hundreds of women like her through your constant donations.

Today is Giving Tuesday, and any donation will be increased by a percentage (We estimate between 30% and 60% of your donation will be added by GlobalGiving, based on how many total donations are given) so it is a great opportunity to do more, please consider supporting us so we help more women like Magdaline.

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