135 Faith Group, Monze, Zambia

The Faith group of Monze has a membership of 20 women aged between 25 and 53. These women have a total of 80 children and orphans. The women of Faith run small scale businesses with the aim of reducing poverty levels in their families. They sell goods like assorted groceries, vegetables, kapenta (small fish) and salaula (second hand clothes).

Mercy Muleya 42 year is a member of this group. She is widowed and has four children who are in school. Mercy runs a market stall selling assorted vegetables, beans and kapenta (small fish).

Prosper Group, Livingstone, Zambia

This is a group called the Prosper Group women of Livingstone district in Southern Zambia. There are 10 women in this group aged between 24 and 63. Some women are married and some widow and have 44 children among themselves and all the children are in school. They run small scale businesses like grocery, second hand clothes and market stalls.

Rosemary Chisamu is 63 years old, she is a member of this group. She is married and has eight children one is in school. She runs a grocery selling sugar, eggs, cooking oil and soaps. Her grocery is in the market and her customers are people in her community.

Kunyanyala Group, Choma, Zambia

This group named Kunyanyala women’s group of Choma which has 10 members aged between 25 and 60. Most of these women are married and some are widowed. They have 65 children and orphans who are in school. They started their businesses for different reasons but mostly to reduce poverty levels within their families and to be financially independent.

Eunifridah Muleta 39 years old is married and has seven children who are in school. She runs a market stall selling beans, kapenta (small fish), tomatoes and assorted vegetables. She has been doing this business at the busy market of Choma for over fifteen years now.

Claudine Ntirenganya, Burera District, Rwanda

Claudine Ntirenganya is a 28-year-old farmer. She grows bananas and maize on a hectare of farm land to support her family’s living costs. Claudine has been growing and trading bananas for over 10 years. Her family, consisting of her husband and one child who will begin going to school next year, live in the Rugarama sector of Burera.

Through her present farming activities, she has created jobs for 3 permanent employees and 3 members of her family. Claudine is a hard-working, ambitious woman who wants to expand her banana farming business and increase her harvest by growing bananas on an additional half a hectare of land. Her husband too gives her a hand with the farming activities. Buying the farm means she can harvest around 2 tons of bananas which she can sell for more than $1,400, which will significantly increase her income. She will also create two more seasonal jobs through this. Claudine will double her farming activities in the future.

Theogene Turimumahoro, Nyabihu district, Rwanda

Turimumahoro Theogene is a 27-year-old farmer who has been growing sugar cane for the past 4 years in the Shyira Sector of Nyabihu District located in the western province of Rwanda. Turimumahoro has finished his advanced studies and decided to engage in agricultural business to overcome his financial problems. Soon, he found success in his business and was able to construct his own house from the profits earned from growing sugar cane. Now, he wants to expand his agricultural activities for a 24-month period. He hopes this will enable him to produce a big truck of sugar cane to sell in the market and buy more land in the long term.

Ndizathu Group, Balaka, Malawi

Ndizathu group consists of 16 members. The majority of the group members are married with children and other dependants amongst them. The women run small businesses mainly shops selling fish, vegetables, groceries, clothes and others run restaurants. They are to buy more products and raw materials to stock their businesses. They started the businesses to earn a living and provide for their families.

Gloria is one member of the group. She is 40 years old, married with four children. Her husband runs a small business. Gloria sells cereals. She requires the money to buy more stocks of beans and groundnuts. The proceeds will enable her to feed and clothe her family. She started the business to support her family. She has been running a business for 8 years and one of her family members works with her. Her ambition is to purchase a farm garden and to increase her business.

Today's Woman Group, Domboshawa, Zimbabwe

Chenai Mawodzwa is a 31 year old entrepreneur and businesswoman and one of the members of the Today’s Women group. At the moment she runs a business trading across-border. The money will allow her to rent a shop at the Showground shopping centre where more people do their shopping, allowing her to tap into this profitable market place. The income her business makes will be used to educate her children and provide her family with their basic needs.

Today’s Women group is made up of 5 women who run businesses so they can support and provide for their families. They will be able to increase their profits so that their family can look forward to a future out of poverty.

Sunganani Group, Lilongwe, Malawi

The group is made up of 17 women based in Lilongwe district. The majority of women in this group are married and they have 56 dependants between them. The women run small businesses to support their families. In the group there is a member named Florah. She is 29 years old and a single mother of 1 child. She sells vegetables and cooking oil. Together with her fellow members of the group they will buy more stock for their various businesses. Florah plans to buy 25 litres of cooking oil, a basket of vegetables and tomatoes. The profits she will make will help her pay school fees for her child. She has been running the business for 5 years as a means of earning money to support her family. Florah plans to grow her business and open a grocery store near her house. She also plans to start supplying vegetables to one of the nearby schools. In the near future she plans to buy land and build a house on it.

Care Group Tuzamurane Twiyubaka,Rurembo Sector, Nyabihu District- Gasiza Branch, Rwanda

Care Group Tuzamurane Twiyubaka (which translates to ‘Let us help each other’) need to buy seeds and fertilizers to grow sugar cane. This group is made of 25 members: 6 men and 19 women. It was established in 2014 with the help of CARE as a Voluntary Savings and Loans Association, or VSLA. These groups are formed by communities that begin by pooling members’ savings and using these savings to make loans to individual members. Before coming together, the group members struggled to cover even their most basic necessities. Since joining the group, they’ve come together and started putting small amounts of money together as savings. After finding out their savings were not enough for the group members to pursue their small income generating activities such as farming, they applied for support. Jean Claude NDUWAYEZU is one of the group members. When he joined the group, he was working for others but now he grows his own sugar cane and sells them to a collection centre, which takes them to a sugar cane factory. Some of the sugar cane is sold on to individuals. He can sell more than 1000 pieces of sugar cane. Each of the group members carries out small income generating activities The good thing about it is that each group member is now able to provide food for their families.

The Care Group, Urugwiro, Rwanda

The Care Group Urugwiro which can translate as “Be generous” is a Voluntary group made of 30 members: 21 women and 9 men established by Care Rwanda in 2013. They live in Cyanzarwe sector, Rubavu district in western region of Rwanda. All group members are farmers who grow potatoes. Theoneste Semana is one group member and he says that these groups help them learn some income generating activities. They will invest in growing potatoes and increase their harvest. This will help them to increase the member’s capacity due to the increase of harvest from additional investment. In the future they plan to buy their own piece of land which will help to reduce expenses on renting the land where they grow potatoes. It will help members to continue taking care of their families and pay their children’s school fees.