Mamra is a young widow (35 years old) and a mother of five children (three girls and two boys) between the ages of 13 years and the last born 4 years old all living in Kibera slums, in Nairobi-Kenya. They live in a shack measuring 10ft X 10ft, made of sticks and mud on the wall and tin-roofed. She has faced significant hardships since her husband’s untimely demise. She was a house wife but after the death of her husband (breadwinner), she had to adjust and adapt to sustain the family growing needs. She later began a small-scale business to help her meet the daily bills of the family but it collapsed due to lack of steady capital, other sources of income and zero training on business management. She has been relying on a casual work of handwashing and house cleaning to the middle class neighboring Kibera slums in order to get some cash to meet the basic needs of her family. This has had a huge challenge because the causal work is not reliable. There are days she can go, sit on the stones at the round-about for hours to no response and ultimately return home late when feeling frustrated, dejected, hopeless and miserable.
Mamra, has was married in the year 2009. She was running a micro-enterprise of making and selling “Samosa’s” chips and quick bites by the roadside to act as a source of income for her family. Providing for her family’s basic needs including education and daily upkeep has become an increasingly challenging endeavor. She harbours passionately a start-up to continue with her business. IDAK connected with her aspirations and has been taking her through some training and basic book keeping in readiness for giving her a seed-capital to kick-start her business, grow it in order to meet the family basic needs.
My dream is to get some capital to start again my business following the counselling and training given by IDAK, I hope to bounce back again with a difference having learnt my mistakes in the past” She had to say to our social worker “With this business in place, I can plan and organize myself to provide for my family, educate my children since I never finished school. It has been a very tough season since my husband went to be with the LORD… I am everything, depending on well-wishers is not good since I long to be self-reliant and it is not easy to make ends meet with the casual work of house cleaning…The people looking for that job are too many so sometimes you can take even one week without work yet you must eat and the children are also looking up to you to provide for them” She added.
Mamra’s dream of doing her food business is a genuine way to help her be ready to pick up again. IDAK is keen at building her bridge by reinforcing her self-esteem, identifying a stall for business within her neighborhood, help her in developing a good business plan, see her bounce back again, walk with her for the next one year as we teach her on how to fish by experience-sharing and coaching in this field by twinning her with veterans and let her fly with her wings to her desired goal in entrepreneurship. This will help in not only transforming her life but also to offer stable family unit for her growing children, improve the living condition of and the housing environment that will spur confidence in the family. Join us in this journey.
