9 People On Their Way to Living The Dream

Florence has started her very own hotel- basically a fast food restaurant. Her hotel is selling a mixture of cooked beans and maize called Githeri, Chipati, Ugali, and pakistani beans. She previously was washing cloths for a small fee and now walks outside the door of her home to sell her premaid meals. She is supporting her 7 children and is putting 6 of the 7 through school. As a widow suffering from HIV, Florence previously had a very difficult time coming up with funds for school fees and rent. She now has a profitable business that will alleviate the daily stress that lack of capital causes. Florence is a proud business owner.
Mary quickly got rolling with her sweet potato stand. She chose an ideal location, right outside of a well traveled bus stop. Every time we walk by, she is hard at work selling her goods. Even though she looks angry at us for taking her picture, she is very happy running her business. Mary surprised us with her business even after the second day her stand was up and running, she expanded her businesses and is now selling nuts as well as boiled sweet potatoes. Prior to selling sweet potatoes, Mary was washing clothes, whenever she had the chance, to support her 5 children - all of which are in school.


Beatrice, a young widow and mother to four children, has started a stand selling an assortment of goods. She is selling Omena, Tilapia, Tomatoes, onions, roasted peanuts, and crushed peanuts. Beatrice is now rocking a newly built portable kiosk, making all the other business owners very jealous. She is one of the most high spirited individuals that we have ever meant, dispite her positive HIV status. She truly understands the importance of saving and growing her business. We expect to continue to see great progress from Beatrice.


Teresia was our first clients that actually already owned her own business, however, she was having trouble with finding enough capital to really make her business profitable. Admiring her work ethic, we decided to assist her in gaining a greater inventory as well as providing a portable kiosk for her to sell her goods. We added tomatoes, maize, omena, onions, avacados, and chilli peppers to her stock. Teresia is definitely a hard worker, she sells her goods out of her house in the morning hours to neighbors and friends. In the evening she sells on Waynee Road to catch customers coming home from work. Teresia is grateful to you all for donating and helping her provide for herself and her 6 children.


Josephine was someone that we interviewed for the first week but we needed some time to think of a business in which she could truly excel. Due to her lack of education, it was a bit of a challenge. She came to us with a new business plan which would not involve very much math and profit calculation. She is now successfully selling charcoal in the area in which she is living. She buys a large sack of charcoal and divides it into small tins to sell at a higher price. Josephine is the only person in her area selling charcoals so she has done very well. She is the mother of 4 children and takes care of her two year old grandson.

Olifa has also started a hotel, selling a local favorite - beans and maize (githeri). She is set up to sell githeri during the morning hours (6am - 1pm) and then tries to catch the dinner crowd around 7 pm. Olifa was another of our clients that was washing clothes for income prior to starting her business. Olifa hopes to expand her business selling more items as she learns the ropes and generates additional income.

Roselia is extremely talented at knitting so we have tried to help her showcase her talent. Since she already had a sewing machine, we were able to buy her a large stock of wool to make sweaters, knit hats, scarves, and many more items. Roselia is one of the most kind-hearted people we have ever met. Her display kiosk, located on the main road of Ngando, is in the process of being built but should be ready in a few days. In the mean while, Roselia is busy knitting to increase her inventory.

Julius and his wife Caroline have started selling dried tilapia and omena in Ngando. Prior to contracting HIV, Julius supported his family working construction. Unfortunately, Julius could not continue in this field but he and his wife had some knowledge about the fish business. We assisted Julius and Caroline in going to the Gikomba market and selecting the fish as we have had experience with a couple other clients. Julius was stubborn about the location of his stand even though we suggested a few different locations. After helping him purchase the stand today, we agreed it was a great deal with strong businesses surrounding it.

Pamela and her husband Boaz have been making goods out of camel-bone to sell at the Maasi market for quite some time. They were previously borrowing money for supplies and were required to pay back the money once the goods were sold. Their problem was they did not have the capital in which to start. They could not get ahead and didn't have a plan to budget the money in which they were making. Now they have capital and a plan. The first shipment of goods should produce a profit of 20,000 KSH ( $260 US ). They will use a portion of this income to expand their business, a portion will be saved, and the rest will go to expenses. We expect them both to be living the highlife very soon. We are hoping to get Louis Vuitton suitcases and Gucci suits for our departing gifts.