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.