By Abiye Hector-Goma | Project Leader
Life as a rural woman has never been easy and the story is the same in both hemispheres whatever colour or culture. She is the first to rise and usually the last to eat or sleep. She works hardest and longest and holds her family together.
This is also the story of the Wakirike women of the Niger Delta area of Nigeria. The nine beneficiaries of the Global Giving project Support for 50 Rural Wakirike Women Entrepreneurs have continued to make progress with their grants. They belong to a larger cohort of women in nine communities who currently receive between 10,000 and 30,000 naira (~£100) loans. From this group, the first 9 Global Giving champions were selected to benefit from a grant of seventy five thousand naira based on their history of prompt payments of initial loans and evidence of improvement in their meagre assets.
The GlobalGiving Champions have continued to meet monthly on a Sunday evening to share experience about their petty trades as well as have time for social fellowship. They also make small monthly contributions into a common fund which they are keeping aside for 'the rainy day'.
At Wakirike Development Coalition, we are really pleased that their businesses are growing from strength to strength.
1. O.B. - Marketer of Shell Fish
2. O.E-W. - Sells ‘Pure Water’ (Packaged Water)
3. O.E. - Production & Marketing of Disinfectants
4. D.E. - ‘Charge cards’ (Telephone Call cards), General Goods
5. B.G. - Wholesale of Soft Drinks
6. H.O. - Firewood & Groceries
7. M.S. - Sale of Roasted Corn, Plantain & Fish; Palm Oil
8. R.I. - Soft Drinks, ‘Pure Water’, General Goods
9. B.I. - Textile Marketing
'Little drops of water make a mighty ocean' and we are really grateful to you for making a difference in the lives of these rural women who can never repay you. Their industry and continued progress is source of joy for us at Wakirike Development Coalition. Their words are attached to this report. There are forty one more women we are still optimistic to assist in due season.
Thank you so much for lighting a candle in their world!
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