Jennifer Muthoni, Charity Murugi, Shelmith Wangeri, and nine other women of the slums of Nyeri would answer with one voice: independence, dignity, and a brighter future for them and their families. These twelve women are successful entrepreneurs in their own right, thanks to micro-credit loans made possible by the National Council of Church of Kenya and funded by The United Church of Canada.
Jennifer runs an automotive spare parts store out of tiny room – about five foot square – jam-packed with the used car parts she sells to car mechanics who work in the adjacent lane. “I used to sell boiled maize, but with the loan I could set up my store and he
lp support my family (including 3 grandchildren).” There’s plenty of competition; I counted four other parts stores just like Jennifer’s in the lane. But, every month she manages to pay her rent (about $36 a month) and suppliers, make her loan payment, and earn a profit.
Many Kenyans travel by the ubiquitous Matatus, mini-van sized buses that hold around 15 people. And there’s no better place to set up a snack cart than at the staging area where passengers catch their Matatus. Charity saw an opportunity, and with a loan of about $400 set up a stall in Nyeri’s main stage. There, she sells drinks, fruit, nuts, and candies to passers-by and passengers. “Before I had my stall, I was hawking bananas while walking around the stage. This is better and I make more: between 200 and 300 shillings a day ($2.00 - $3.00).” It may not sound like much, but often she can even manage to save a little bit after expenses.
Diversification is the key to Shelmith’s success: she sells groceries, serves tea, manufactures jikos (small steel-and-terra-cotta charcoal stoves used for cooking), rents several rooms, and manages the community’s water tap. Business is brisk, and she now employs three men to make the jikos, which sell for between 100 and 200 shillings, depending on size. As one of the few people in Kiawara that properly owns her land Shelsmith could use her loan to have the water line and meter installed. Now she is able to sell water to her neighbours at about a quarter of the rate in other areas 
of Kiawara. From behind her shop, we can hear two distinct sounds: a saw ripping through wood, and the ring of a hammer on iron. There, we found two workshops where a furniture maker is finishing a table-top, and a blacksmith is forging a crow-bar. Both rent their space from Shelsmith.
Walking through Kiawara, a vast slum of more than 10,000 people in the heart of Nyeri, you can’t help but notice the children. We aroused some notice – we were being watched as we walked through – yet a small wave and smile was returned ten-fold by everyone we met, children and adults alike. The youngest children, seeing my camera, came up asking to have their picture taken and laughed to see themselves on the LCD.
Micro-credit loans are a leading program of the NCCK’s Vulnerable Women’s Project in Nyeri. As Charity noted, “Loans at the banks can cost more than 20% and they want a guarantee like your house. If you miss a payment, they take your house! NCCK charges us 1%, and if we miss a payment, we talk about how to make it next week.” Every Friday, the women get together to talk about business, trade ideas, and help each other out. Along with starting twelve new businesses, the loans funded by the United Church have helped forge a new community.
For more about micro-credit, and some of the challenges in making it work (especially as for-profits get involved), see this CBC article.
We visited this part of Nyeri five years ago to document a successful water collection project and were very impressed by the people their resourcefulness in the face of such difficulties.
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