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| Mwanahawa Makongolo with some of her grand children. |
At the age of 60 years, I was looking forward to a quiet "retirement,"
where I would be provided for by my son and enjoy occasional visits
from my grandchildren. I had spent all I had on his education and expected
his support, as my only child, in return. But my son brought four wives
home, claiming that, as a Muslim, he had the right to marry all of these
wives and to bring them to my house.
My son contracted HIV from a Ugandan woman, who became sick and died.
After some time, my son also became sick and required two operations
to treat his ulcers. But after the operations, he became even more sick
and eventually died. My heart was crushed and my hope was nearly gone.
Yet I consoled myself with the knowledge that at least he had left behind
his wives and children to continue the family lineage. Little did I
know that the worst was still to come.
All of his wives later died and I was left to care for all of their
13 children! This was more than I had asked for. The weight of the responsibility
was crushing in on me. Even through my best efforts, I was unable to
send the younger children beyond primary school.
A member of the Society for Women living with AIDS in Kenya (SWAK)
asked me to join the Tumaini Support Group here in Mumias to see how
I could help my grandchildren. Through this group, I heard of USAID’s
K-Rep FAHIDA project. With a loan of 5,000 Kenyan Shillings, I was able
to start a small kiosk. K-Rep also trained me in small business management.
The business is doing well and I have been able to repay my loan. However,
it is small and still struggling because it has to support the family
and pay school fees. I hope to receive more loans from K-Rep so that
I can nurture and educate my grandchildren, and save them from being
infected with HIV.
| 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 that are involved in income
generating activities either in small scale farming or micro
and small enterprises. Initiated in 2001, the project, called
‘FAHIDA,’ is a two-year pilot activity. It has
adopted 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 accumulated 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 & Health program supports a
consortium of NGOs that oversees group formation and provision
of HIV/AIDS services. |
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USAID/Kenya’s Micro Private Enterprise Development project: Mwanahawa Makongolo
