By Michael Acton and Christine Illanes | Visitors
Two visitors recently met the staff of this project and saw the work they are doing. They conducted a survey and met beneficiaries.
Michael Acton wrote:
"We stopped by the Technoserve office to pick up Pauline. We were unable to do much of our survey with her because she was not involved in the interaction with Global Giving. That went through their office out of the country. Nonetheless we did ask a few questions about the project on the way to visit some of the beneficiaries.
We visited their top beneficiary who was able to take the skills she learned from the Technoserve trainings, such as financial management, to win startup capital for her business. She had a small business in a marketplace where she knitted and sold scarves, baby clothes, and hats. Before working with Technoserve she had the sewing skills, but didn't have business knowledge so she was stuck working at a very low wage with no benefits. The young lady lost her parents years before and was the sole provider to her younger siblings. She mentioned that the pressure of not being able to care for her family nearly drove her to take her life. It was a story of determination and survival.
Pauline told me that she was an exceptional beneficiary who was able to use her drive and the assistance from Technoserve with amazing results. We were offered the chance to visit an average beneficiary, but due to our schedule we decided that we did not have the time to visit the second beneficiary."
Christine Illanes wrote:
"At TechnoServe, I met with Pauline Mwangi, who was clearly excited about the work she was doing to correct the lack of female entrepreneurship in Kenya. TechnoServe does training and workshops for girls around Nairobi, often having competitions for seed money or capital after the trainings.
Pauline took me to visit one of their star performers, who had won multiple challenges and was putting her money to good use. The woman had lost her parents at a young age, and was working in a clothing factory to support her siblings and herself. Thanks to the training that she received, she now runs her own business in one of the local markets and has an employee. She showed me her books and taught me how to build up a business and do my own accounting."
About Technoserve in general, Michael said, "Great, they are making a difference" and Christine said, "Incredible! You need to see this!"
By Jessica Joye | Communications Coordinator
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