Agriculture & Microenterprise Development

Success Story

I Have Dreams

Pamela Miheso, a beneficiary of USAID Kenya's Microfinance Program tells her story

After attaining my '0' Level education, I wanted to settle down to a happy married life. I believed in family values and cherished my childhood dreams of being a mother and a wife. At the age of 20 years, I was already married and working toward my goal. The stars seemed to be shining brightly on me. I had a husband who loved me and provided for me. To crown my joy I was pregnant with his child - the fruit of our love!
I had heard about HIV/AIDS but had no reason to worry about it, not even for a moment, because I had been faithful to my husband. It was during my antenatal clinic visit seven years ago that I discovered that I had the virus. It showed up in the blood sample the hospital took as part of the routine tests that every pregnant woman takes to determine the presence of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.
Before learning of my results, I took the matter lightly and even joked about it with my husband. In my next antenatal visit I found a counselor waiting for me. She took me aside and told me that I had the dreaded virus!  I was utterly shocked. I hoped that it was only a bad dream and that I would soon wake up.

PAMELA MIHESO...a beneficiary of USAID/Kenya's FAHIDA project.

How? Where? Why? I wondered. "No, this cannot be true. Please tell me it is not true. Tell me it's a bad dream," I cried and pleaded with the counselor. She gently put her arms around me and convinced me that the results were accurate.
My life and my dreams were crumbling in on me. I broke down and wept. So many questions were running through my mind. How would my baby look? Would my baby be blind? Lame? The counselor told me not to worry because there was help for women like me.
Naturally, my husband was also infected. In fact he is the one who brought the virus to our home. When I told him what had happened at the hospital he said, "now that we know we have the virus, we don't need to fight, but to care for ourselves".
I continued with my antenatal clinic visits and later gave birth to a baby girl, whom I did not breastfeed. My husband helped me nurse the baby on formula until she was about two years old. At this time he was suffering from opportunistic infections. Finally he succumbed to TB and I lost him in 1999.

My husband was the chief breadwinner; I only had a small business on the side. After his death, I had to start afresh with a young baby to care for. Although I wanted to stay in Nairobi, I had to leave because it became impossible to pay the bills. Back at home I began a small business using some money I had received from my husband's employer. The business was very tough because I had little experience and it was all we were depending on. I made many mistakes.

It was during these business struggles that I heard of USAID's K-Rep FAHIDA project through the Society for Women living with Aids in Kenya (SWAK). I got interested and joined it through "Tuungane Kakamega Post Test Club," where I was eventually elected the group's chairperson. K-Rep helped me pick up my business and gave me a loan to boost the shop.

The K-Rep Development Agency is a micro finance research and development institution engaged in development of micro finance products. USAID/Kenya's Micro Private Enterprise Development project (MicroPED) has supported K-Rep to establish rural based Financial Service Associations (FSAs) with special lines of credit for HIV/AIDS affected and infected families involved in income generating activities either in small scale farming or micro and small enterprises. This project, tagged 'FAHIDA,' is a two-year pilot activity initiated in 2001. It has adopted the village banking and group based lending models to advance loans to target groups.

As of March 2002, FAHIDA had supported a total of 17 groups with a membership of 457 clients. KSh. 1,806,000 have been disbursed as loans and KShs. 195,282 as savings. The repayment rate is estimated at 95%. A total of 218 members have received business skills training.
 
FAHIDA is jointly managed by USAID/Kenya's Economic Growth program and the Population & Health program. The Population and Health program supports a consortium of NGOs that oversees group formation and provision of HIV/AIDS services.

I received training in business management, which enabled me to expand my business. The training created a lot of confidence in me, and together with the loan of KSh.15,000, I was able to buy supplies in bulk, keep my books, repay my loan, and was left with enough money to feed my family.

My challenge now is that I have no room to expand my business! I feel squeezed on my current premises. I also have difficulties with my customers who take things on credit and fail to repay on time.

I have a dream that keeps me inspired. A dream to educate my daughter, who is HIV negative, and one day buy a plot and build a house for her so that she is secure in case of my death. I dream of expanding my business premises. I also want to become an agent for British American Tobacco (B.A.T.) products. The sky is the limit for me!

I have already gone through the memory process of writing a will. I believe in living positively and fully helping other people with HIV/AIDS accept their condition.

I am grateful to USAID and K-Rep for helping me realize that I am a human being and letting me know that having the virus does not make me a lesser person.

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