Christine
Mbita, Kenya, Kenya
42% repaid
Name
Christine
Member since
April 2015
On-time repayments
31 installments • 10%
I am Christine Owuor, I was born in 1950 in the rural village of Rusinga Island in Rachuonyo Sub-County of Homa Bay County. I was the 1st born in a family of 10 (three girls and four boys). I went through my education in the Government funded public schools. Having successfully completed my Primary School, I didn't not proceed with education but opted to get married in 1970.
We lived together with my husband for 20 years and he later on died as a result of cholera! He left me with five children ages 15-3. After my husband death in 1990, life became unbearable and I had no means of feeding myself and the children. This is what prompted me to start a small scale cereals and foodstuff business to enable me raise money to feed my family.
This business has helped me a lot and three children have completed high school with the 1st born having graduated with a Bachelor Science Degree in Education from Moi University in 2012. The last born is in Class seven.
In my free time, I do participate in Church activities like singing and visiting the sick in hospital. Mbita community where I grow, the cultural norms tend to look down upon women but with the new medias and information technologies, women are starting to have a voice and aspires to venture into small income businesses, I find this interesting and my background as an accomplished widow is helping me to reach out to women and mobilize them for active participation in local development.
I have been in the business for more than 20 years now. I mainly cook deep fried bread (mandazi, french fries, tilapia fish, nile perch), fruit salads, and sell to the local residents. In my small food kiosk, I do sell dried small fish "omena", avocados, vegetables and tomatoes. I sell french fries mostly at lunch time to the casual workers who prefers take away, and I do earn alot of money from the product as compared to other products which I sell only in the evening.
If I am offered this loan I will use US$ 80 to buy assorted fruits like avocadoes, mangoes, paw paw, oranges for sale and US$ 20 to renovate my structure (kibanda) so that I may attract more and more customer to add revenue.This is where I get my daily bread and hope with good capital i will expand.
With a Zidisha loan of US$100 , I am going to use US$ 20 to renovate and expand my 'kibanda' shop. That's buying two iron sheets, timber, nails and pay the work labour. This will have impact on my business in that many customers will have enough space when they are eating chips. This will add my profit by at least 30%.
-$40 I will used to stock 1 carton of tomatoes that in high demand. Because this my main raw material which i should have always have in store. This will have big benefit because will buy in bulk hence given discount. With discount the profit will increase by at least 20%.
-US$40 will be used to buy assorted fruits and food items for sale with a profit increase projection of 20% per week.
I look forward to repaying the loan on time and going for more loans to help expand my business.
Positive
None
Neutral
None
Negative
None
Project Type
Classic Loan
Disbursed amount
$100.00
Date disbursed
May 21, 2015
Repayment status
Late
Projected term
7 months
Ask Christine a question about this project, share news and photos of your own, or send a simple note of thanks or inspiration.