Kenya Village Projekt

18 months into the program - spring 2016

On April 1st 2014, Göran and Anette Bredinger, with family, launched their support to a rural village called Kithimani in Kenya as part of Hand in Hand’s Village Program. The 2-year program aims to support 400 village members with business training, access to credit and continued support to launch their own enterprises. As a result, Bredinger’s support will lift 2,000 adults and children out of poverty.

18 months into the program, vast improvements can now be seen. Kelvin, the business trainer who is mentoring village members on the path towards business success says: “I am humbled by the efforts that our members make to implement the training. I’m so pleased to be involved and watch their lives transform every day.”

With Bredinger’s support, Hand in Hand has engaged 265 individuals into 12 Self-Help Groups. 89% of these are women, and they support a total of 1,325 dependents – mostly children. All members have completed the first training module on savings, through which they learn to manage their money and find savings in their weekly spending. The village members have already mobilized cumulative savings of $4,645 within their groups. This is one of the most transformative elements of Hand in Hand’s program, especially when some earn an average of $1 per day. In the words of Chris Mwaniki, a business trainer: “I have some clients who at first only know about waking up and finding food for the day. That’s their life.”

All members have also completed the second training module: business training, through which they learn financial skills, to manage their costs and calculate profits, and establish small, profitable businesses that make use of their skills and potential. The village members have already managed to create 219 enterprises, which will enable them to buy food, better clothes, books for school and medicine when needed for 1,090 people. 

82% of members are now working on their third module: financial training, through which they learn how to make productive use of their savings and manage loans. Initially, members borrow from the group savings funds to buy the first stock, equipment, animals or crops needed to get their micro-enterprise off the ground. However, Hand in Hand has also facilitated credit of $1,936 from a Kenyan government fund, at an average loan size of $32. 

Now what’s next? Over the next six months, Kelvin will support existing members to complete the training modules and launch their businesses. He will work with the owners of some of the most promising businesses to help them expand by, for example, helping them to introduce their products to Matuu, the nearest largest market town, or advising them on how to quality certify their products to reach even larger markets. He will also showcase the successes of the new-born entrepreneurs to recruit the remaining 185 members into the program. 

Together with Hand in Hand, the Bredinger family is contributing to sustainably lifting some of the most marginalized, rural poor households out of poverty through the power of entrepreneurship. By engaging women in the creation of productive jobs, they are able to improve food security, education, health and housing for their families and communities. By challenging norms and being role models within their communities, entrepreneurs have potential to drive change and lift their communities out of poverty. 

For more details on how your organization can adopt a village and lift 2,000 people out of poverty, please contact Martha Huntley at Hand in Hand International at mhuntley@hihinternational.org. You can find more information here: http://www.hihinternational.org/Support-Us/kenyan-village-support.aspx.   

About Hand in Hand 
Look at poverty differently and you’ll see grassroots entrepreneurs, full of energy and ideas. Hand in Hand helps turn their skills and potential into jobs. They find a way up and out of poverty. Hand in Hand is a global network of NGOs with a shared mission to reduce poverty through job creation. Since its launch in rural Tamil Nadu, India, in 2003, Hand in Hand has grown to fight poverty in 10 countries and supported 1.66 million members, almost all of them women, to create 2.42 million jobs (November 2015). 
www.handinhandinternational.org

Visit a village in Kenya ……
http://www.handinhandinternational.org/work/visit-village/visit-a-village-in-kenya-kithamani/