Women’s venture into microfinance boosts village enterprises

• Moro Community Self-help Group runs a savings and credit organisation that finances more than a dozen village enterprises and has transformed the lives of its members economically and socially.
• The group then began developing proposals and looking for donors and with the help of the Anglican Church of Kenya, got basic training on agriculture and entrepreneurship.
• Through weekly contributions in the model of an informal savings club (chama) they raised Sh45,000, which served as the start-up capital for their beekeeping venture.
• The group expands its business with each honey harvest by making new hives and buying more chairs while alternating between dividing up the profits among members and re-investing it each year.

Microfinance institutions in rural areas continue to fill the gaps left by commercial banks, enabling rural entrepreneurs get loans for their ventures.

In Kisumu County, one such association was formed by a handful of HIV- positive women who were looking for ways to support one another.

Today, Moro Community Self-help Group runs a savings and credit organisation that finances more than a dozen village enterprises and has transformed the lives of its members economically and socially.

“We came together in 2008 and at the time our members were facing a lot of stigma because f they were all HIV positive,” said Helen Ondoro one of the founding members and an official of the group.

“We decided that life has to go on and we needed to have a source of income to help support ourselves and our dependents and that’s how we settled on agriculture.”

The group then began developing proposals and looking for donors and with the help of the Anglican Church of Kenya, got basic training on agriculture and entrepreneurship.

“We received training on elementary fiscal management, book keeping and how to save and invest in agriculture,” recalls Ms Ondoro. “That was when we decided to start a savings group for our community.”

Through weekly contributions in the model of an informal savings club (chama) they raised Sh45,000, which served as the start-up capital for their beekeeping venture.

“From the money we had raised we asked a local carpenter to make for us 10 beehives.”

Six months later, they harvested 70 litres of honey, which earned them Sh35,000. They reinvested the income. They had a ready market for their product since they had no competitors in the region.

In addition to this, the group took advantage of an opportunity that no other entrepreneur in the village had noticed.

“We realised that there were a lot of events going on in the surrounding villages like weddings and funerals but since we are far from the town it was a challenge getting plastic chairs and we ventured into furniture rental,” says Ms Ondoro.

The group expands its business with each honey harvest by making new hives and buying more chairs while alternating between dividing up the profits among members and re-investing it each year.