The program, which is called Mavuno, meaning 'harvest' in Swahili, has now over 150 members.
The goal of this project is provide basic tools and critical assistance to help families improve their lives in a meaningful way and end the cycle of poverty. It is a cooperative of entrepreneurs who, through a self-replenishing fund, are able to take small loans and start a business. The group holds meetings to share business experiences. Each member of the group is able to provide others with support and act as a sounding board for ideas on how to improve their businesses. As the individuals find success, they pay back their loans and are able to take loans from the fund in higher amounts.
Loans start at the modest amount of 5,000 Kenya shillings, about US $50, and are for 6 months. As members complete the repayment of their loans, they qualify for successively larger amounts, up to the current maximum of 25,000 Kenya shillings, or about US $330.
Recently, a separate program – Mavuno Youth – has been set up to cater for the special needs of young people as they learn to become economically self sufficient in small businesses. These loans start as low as $25.
A second economic initiative is taking shape in the form of the farm at Kiserian, a rural area about 40 miles south west of Nairobi in traditional Maasai grazing lands. Maji Mazuri has about 40 acres of land and is gradually clearing it, and planting crops for sale and to feed the children.
The farm also has cows, goats, chickens, turkeys, geese and rabbits and is serving as a demonstration farm for the local farmers who are overly dependent on raising cattle, which are very vulnerable to the regular droughts in the area. The farm has developed some key resources: a borehole for water, solar power and a windmill to provide electricity for the borehole pump and to light one of our schools, which is adjacent to the farm.
The Kiserian projects – farm and school – allow us to serve the rural community, which is as much in need of development as are the urban slums. If the flight of people from the land to the city is to be stemmed, it will take the development of economic opportunities and services like education to keep them at home.
