Every year, March is designated Women’s History Month. In this month, we honour and celebrate women’s contributions to history and contemporary society. In today's blog, we talk with women from our FEM program, and they highlight the roles they play in their families and Kasese community. Read the blog article to learn more!
Celebrating 5 Years of FEM for Women
Success stories from five women who have received microloans
This November, we’re celebrating 5 years of Orant’s Financially Empowering Microloans (FEM) for Women program. Join us for Giving Tuesday on Nov. 28, 2023, at Denton County Brewing Co. to celebrate the success of these women. We’ll be raising money to fund the FEM for Women program for 2024 with a goal of raising $36,000. We hope you’ll join us.
Olipa Chagomelana
Married with 2 kids, Olipa joined the Financial Empowering Microloans (FEM) for Women program in 2018. She owns a grocery store which, in 2018, had a capital of 400,000 Malawi Kwacha. With FEM, she has grown her business capital to 800,000 Malawi Kwacha and she is able to stock her store with more supplies that meet demands of people around Kasese.
With the proceeds she has been realizing from her business, Olipa has been able to comfortably provide for her family of four. She has also managed to invest in livestock farming. Using proceeds from her grocery store, she buys livestocks which she later sells and invests the money back in her grocery business.
“Currently from my business proceeds, I have purchased and stored 30 bags of maize which I am planning to sell during the lean season when maize prices go high,” she says
Olipa’s dream is to open a first ever wholesale shop at Kasese Trading Centre. She believes that with hard work and determination, her dream will come true one day.
Margret Moffat
Margret Moffat has been in the FEM program since 2022. The loans and coaching from the program have helped Margaret to boost her business such that she has made a lot of profits in recent months. Using the profits from her business, she has built a hostel for secondary school students in her community. She believes that apart from making a living from her business, she has a responsibility towards her community. In addition to making money from the hostels, Margaret plays a motherly role to the girls who stay in her hostels and she makes sure that they have a safe place to stay.
Ndaziona Mchonjo
Ndaziona Mchonjo is a FEM cohort 2 participant who joined FEM in 2021. She buys maize and re-sells it. Over the years, her business has birthed 2 other businesses: farming and Mobile Money. Recently, Ndaziona has started harvesting tomatoes which she is selling and is expecting to realize a profit of not less than 700,000 MWK.
Through her business, Ndaziona pays school fees for her daughter and comfortably provides for her family. Her dream is to buy a car for her family.
What derives her in her business is the admiration she has for financially independent women. “I am inspired by those women who are successfully running businesses,” she says.
Ida Banda
Ida Banda is a cohort 3 FEM program participant. She hails from Mkwinya village, in Dowa district, Traditional Authority Chakhaza. With a loan of 50,000 MWK, Ida started a maize bran/husk business. She visits villages and maize mills buying maize bran, which she then sells to people for use in animal feed or beer brewing.
Through FEM’s support and proceeds she has made over the months, Ida opened a grocery store with a capital of 200,000 MWK which now can be valued at 280,000 MWK.
Ida is one happy program participant whose story inspires many. Currently, Ida has over 200 bags of maize bran in store and she is expecting to make over 600,000 MWK after selling.
Gladys Chidzalo
Gladys Chidzalo hails from Mankhaka village and she is married with 5 children. She joined the FEM program in 2021 to boost her Banana fritters business capital. It never crossed her mind that from such a small business she could make profits that could help her buy school necessities for her children. From this small business, Gladys has also managed to raise chickens, and from her last year’s proceeds, she was able to cultivate an acre of maize for her household consumption. This has helped her family to have enough food which will sustain them until their next harvest.
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The Orant Journal
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