Family Economic Empowerment in the Kenyan Slums

Introduction

Many parents are driven by dreams that their children’s lives will be better than their own. Yet many of these parents in the most vulnerable families in our working areas lack access to knowledge, capital, markets, technology, and information they need to build thriving businesses. We believe that household economic strengthening is building the capacity of the men and women in our intervention to participate in, contribute to and benefit from economic opportunities in ways that recognize the value of their contributions, respect their intrinsic dignity, build stronger families and improve the quality of life for all members of the family. Economic Empowerment is not an end in itself, but a tangible expression of care that radically changes the lives of children and their families that may lead to transformation lasting for generations.

During the reporting period the following were carried out:

• Seminars/life skills: We facilitated seminars and life skills to empower beneficiaries on approach, behavior and personality for their overall development. 
• Economic  empowerment  -  The  idea  of  the  seed  capital  is  to  enable  beneficiaries  invest  in firewood  business  etc.  During  the  quarter,  some  of  our  beneficiaries  supplied  uniforms  to Macheo,  some  supplied  fruits  while  others  were  linked  to  markets  where  they  supplied  fruits and cereals.
• Follow-up  home  visits  –  Home  visits  were  conducted  to  make  follow  ups  and  carry  out  assessment  for  new  clients.  We then worked side-by-side to build the family’s capacity and confidence to achieve set goal.

Success stories

“The only reason I got involved in stone crushing is because, compared to other small businesses, it does not require much capital.”

Jedida Mbithe is a 38-year-old separated mother of seven in the Umoja village. Following her separation with her husband, Jedida who had been financially dependent on him, had to work harder than ever before. She became involved in various small-scale income generating activities but, despite being labour intensive, they awarded little cash. These included washing other people’s clothes as well as rearing chicken. Out of the different income activities, Jedida found crushing stones into gravels as the most tiring as well as the unhealthiest.  In addition, this activity is very time consuming, as it required her and her children to collect and carry heavy stones.

After identification and months of constant follow up by our economic strengthening officer, we provided Jedida with a start-up capital and started a green grocer. A natural entrepreneur, Mutheu took full advantage of Macheo’s support for small business development and is now running her businesses based in her community that have substantially improved her income and capacity to support her family’s basic needs. She is also participating member in a group formed within Umoja by beneficiaries who have gone through Macheo and she has saved money to expand her business.

Reason for Success

Part of the success in the program is to include men and boys in this process as champions of women entrepreneurs. We are involving them to enhance their understanding about the power of entrepreneurship and how supporting their wives, mothers and daughter can have a profound influence on their families and communities.

We have also established a group in this area of Umoja, by which members are beneficiaries of Household Economic Strengthening.  The members can save and access credit to expand their businesses if need be arises.

*Name changed to protect protection purposes. 

We want to thank all our donors for their amazing support for the Macheo Empowerment Program. Giving a person the tools to help themselves, is always a more sustainable model of aid, than feeding them for a day. Your funding this quarter has helped a few families  become self sufficient, feed their children and provide school supplies for children to attend school. 

With many thanks for your kind consideration.

Anne Thompson

From the field.....by Seth Mwangi

Mutheu is twenty eight years old and provides care to seven children (four of her own & three of her late brother's). Her life began to improve when she started a small business with the support of Macheo through their household economic strengthening intervention. Before her involvement with Macheo, Mutheu had no stable income and relied on casual labour. The jobs were hardly coming in and she was in constant debt to several lenders. Her children would miss school and sometimes go hungry for a day. She was identified by our social worker, when the teacher of the school that Mutheu’s children go to, noticed their absense.  It was reported that the child had not gone to school for days. A home follow up was made and it was established that the household was very needy. One child was referred to our health program for treatment and all the other children were placed in our feeding intervention program at school. Mutheu took advantage of Macheo’s supportive economic improvement seminars and quickly absorbed basic principles of small business practices, as well as skills to improve her family’s food security, nutrition, and hygiene. She was also given information on the importance of legal documents for her children; birth certificate and coverage from the National Hospital Insurance Fund. After months of constant assessment by our economic strengthening officer, Macheo provided Mutheu with a start-up capital and she started a green grocer,      “I can’t believe myself today; I really came from far". There are times when I would eat one meal a day and my children could not go to good school because of missing basic school items, but now I feel that I can support my family and feel more confident about our future.” A natural entrepreneur, Mutheu took full advantage of Macheo’s support for small business development and is now running her business based in her community, that have substantially improved her income and capacity to support her family’s basic needs. She was recently taught on how to grow vegetables on a sack so that he can supplement what she buys from the market. “As a result of Macheo’s support, I have real confidence about the future for my family,” says Mutheu. “I also see that other caregivers look up to me now and see that it is possible to improve family income. This benefits all of our children.” says Mutheu. Through our HES intervention, Macheo helps families like Mutheu’s improve their financial status through income generating activities by building practical skills, entrepreneurship, record keeping, financial skills, building linkages to local markets and helping them measure and monitor the progress of their businesses.