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