Kenya Micro-Business Project Update – May, 2011

What’s the best thing about the HelpAge Canada Micro-Business Program? It’s the size. Small is truly beautiful here. These small HelpAge Canada micro-businesses (in conjunction with Ahero Joot Social Services in Kenya) are helping communities in very big ways. Micro-business is a new program that targets 45+ age groups and fosters community self-reliance and sustainability by providing the seed money to grow small community businesses. And that’s not all. Each successful business group adopts five frail elderly and their families with weekly contributions of food and other basics. The result: a community working to help itself.

Allow us to introduce some of these businesses and the communities they help ( support) .

1. Awasi Group A, established a cattle business. Members buy, raise and sell cattle, and are now moving into a new venture with sheep and goats. Members carefully account for the money they have been given and now can boast that they have supported 5 grandmothers and 5 orphans. Some of the profits have meant soap, blankets, school uniforms and fees for their recipients. It has also meant covering the costs of some medical treatment.

Awasi group members are delighted to report that their business is supporting both the members and their beneficiaries and that they are now growing vegetables as well. As Colleta Akinyi, one of the orphans says, “I will make sure that I work hard in school and achieve my dream of becoming a pilot. Thanks to HelpAge Canada and may the living God prolong your lives.”

2. Padre Pio 1 Group has concentrated on buying and selling maize and rice. The lives of the five group members and the frail elderly and orphaned children that they support have changed dramatically. We are talking here about a business that makes sure four orphans have school uniforms, paid school and examination fees and school supplies. We are talking here about elderly people who are eating better and are healthier.

But we are also talking about a business with confident members who have gained independence and are looking to expansion. They are learning about the vagaries of the market economy and eagerly absorbing its teachings. When it goes poorly, they learn from the experience, discuss it and make another plan.

3. Padre Pio 3 Group is another inspiring micro-business story. Focusing on buying and selling small animals, the five group members are supporting several orphans whose parents died of AIDS, as well as frail elderly people desperate for support. The report says it best: “We nowadays have hope in life, look stronger and have reasons to see another day.”

This tenacious group has had to cope with animal infection and illness. At one point, their animals were quarantined by the Kenyan government and as a result the business, ground to a halt. But they forged on. “Most of us never knew that we could do business but this potential has been awoken and this candle of hope needs to be kept burning.”

Micro-Business

HelpAge Canada, in cooperation with our African partners, runs a series of micro-business development programs in Kenya designed to lift older people and their families out of poverty.

Our micro-business development program starts out with a basic business plan created by older Kenyans. These business plans, involving activities such as agriculture, animal husbandry, rope making, textile production, or other local crafts are designed from the ground up for sustainability.

Once the business plan is created, HelpAge Canada provides micro-credit financing to start the business. Our local partners provide oversight, support and advice to these older entrepreneurs as they develop their micro-businesses.

Micro-businesses started by older persons with HelpAge Canada's help have produced enough profit to send over a dozen HIV/AIDS-orphaned Kenyan children to school, and are providing secure income to entire villages in Ahero, Kenya.

If you would like to contribute to HelpAge Canada's successful micro-business projects in Ahero, Kenya, please click here to donate now.

Update

Micro-Business Groups Making Progress

HelpAge Canada has traditionally provided support for older persons in the developing world, with one-to-one sponsorships, through the Adopt-A-Gran program. This program has been very successful as it supports the lives of older persons who are in need. However, we are always looking for new and innovative ways to reach out more, and to reach out in a more effective manner.

Over the past few years HelpAge Canada, in cooperation with our partner organization in Kenya Ahero Joot Social Services, has been working on a pilot project centered on income generation and economic development. What makes this project special is that alternatively to sponsoring an individual Gran, a group of older persons is given a micro-business grant to pursue a project. The groups, made up of five people, then commit to a business plan involving agriculture, livestock husbandry or door step businesses. The money that they earn with these businesses goes to support themselves as well as other older persons in their community who are too frail or ill to work. Income is also dispensed to orphaned children in the community.

This pilot project is proving to be a great success in parts of Kenya. Its success has even prompted other groups of older persons, those without grants, to attempt similar projects in order to support themselves and those in their communities.

“HelpAge Canada has given me hope for the future, I can now provide for my grand children” –Regina Omolo

Groups generally receive from $350 - $500 CDN in funding, which supports a five person business plan that in turn supports five to ten additional older persons or vulnerable people. Most older persons, in the developing world, live on less than a dollar a day which makes income generation very important. These micro-business projects allow us to reach and support at least five times as many people with roughly the same amount of money. This program not only supports more of the population, it also gives older persons a sense of pride as well as self-reliance. Micro-business projects allow older persons to prove to their communities they are valuable members of society and have knowledge to share no matter their age.

These projects change lives overseas- not just one life, but the lives a whole community. For example, in the villages of Nduru, Ahero and Awasi, groups are reporting sales of 10 goats instead of 2, sales of 3 bags of Maize instead of 1 and sales of 100 ropes instead of 15. These wage increments allow them to provide two meals a day to those under their care.

HelpAge Canada is in the process of expanding this program, if you would like to get involved with this exciting new project, do not hesitate to call for more information.