World Food Programme-supported schemes help fight cultural barriers - and food insecurity
A group of Kenya n women sits in a circle one recent afternoon, a metal box in the middle. It looks like a toolbox except for three telltale locks. Pocket-sized record books lie strewn on the floor. Money changes hands - many times. For an outsider, the process taking place is difficult to follow, but these entrepreneurs know each step by heart.
Akai hopes to change this. Trained and supported by WFP, she has since created and in turn trained 35 savings groups in Samburu County since 2021 - retaining membership to each one, and passing on her skills to hundreds of other women. Under the scheme, Samburu group members buy between one and five shares per meeting, each worth the equivalent of US$0.07. The money goes into a communal pot for loans that must be repaid with 10 percent interest. At the end of the year, after recovering all the loans, members then share out the final pot of money - and the cycle starts all over again.
The earnings helped members to launch small businesses and invest in other priorities, such as buying land and sending their kids to school. Her WFP earnings allowed Akai to buy livestock, which she fattens and sells at a profit - and to grow vegetables for home consumption and sale. Bit by bit, she quietly invested in small parcels of land - ensuring her daughters were included in the ownership titles.
When Lekairab's eldest daughter graduated high school, she applied for a loan and opened a food kiosk for the young woman, which later became a small restaurant.
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