Lessons learned: Providing business training in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement
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BACKGROUND
South Sudanese refugees who started to settle in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement in Uganda in 2016 are constantly on the lookout for opportunities that may provide a stepping stone to a sustainable livelihood.
The Bidibidi settlement, located in Yumbe District, is the largest in Uganda with a population of 233,959 reported at the end of 2020. The settlement is separated into five zones, further divided into villages where South Sudanese refugees are planting new roots. Residents there continue to struggle to access sufficient food, arable land, jobs or skills-building opportunities and long for the financial, social and physical assets that are key to resilience.
KENYA
(
MissionNewswire) Hundreds of women entrepreneurs in Dagoreti, Kenya, and other poor areas are benefiting from the Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) project started by the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco three years ago, according to an article in the
Global Sisters Report. The Salesian Sisters developed the microloan project after securing funds from Don Bosco Mondo in Germany.
The project was launched to help women start businesses of their own to alleviate poverty and improve the well-being of their children. Many of the women use the funds earned for their children’s school fees and other necessities.
Sister Gisele Mashauri explained that the groups consist of 15 to 25 members each. Members save at least 50 Kenyan shillings (50 cents) per day from their businesses and then lend this money to other members in the form of loans without collateral.
Sr. Gisele Mashauri of the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco guides women on how to do the table banking in Dagoreti slum on the outskirts of Kenya s capital, Nairobi. (GSR photo/Doreen Ajiambo)
Dagoreti, Kenya Joyce Nyokabi s happier times began when she started a small grocery business in 2019 in a poor slum district on the outskirts of Nairobi, after she got a loan from Savings and Internal Lending Communities, or SILC, a project run by the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco to empower poor families.
Before, the 34-year-old mother of four lived in extreme poverty after her husband lost his job as an office messenger at a local baking company. Nyokabi took on odd jobs, working from sunrise to sunset every day, to feed her family and pay school fees for the children.