Mary Kiguru reports on the outcome of the students’ entry in a national competition in Kenya. An earlier entry talks of the involvement of university students in the support of the Sujali women entrepreneurs in Nairobi.
The ENACTUS Team at Kenya Methodist University participated during the 2015 National ENACTUS Competition. The competition brought 9 universities together. Each demonstrated the impact they are having in the community through entrepreneurial action. It was amazing what the students are doing to empower their communities. The ENACTUS team at KeMU demonstrated that training and mentoring can make a big difference even to those who have never been to school. The team performed well and came second in their group. The team captured in the photo above as they came out of the Kenya International Conference Centre shows Macharia, Tichi, Joy, Yvonne and Benjamin fresh from their ordeal.
The team has working with Jacinta on record keeping, basic financial management and waste management. Jacinta’s canteen is now cleaner, attracts more clientele and is better organized. Jacinta has employed her husband who has expressed interest in enrolling in classes in cooking to improve on his on-the-job acquired skills. He is now more focused on cleanliness after the training with the students and is developing his social skills with customers.
Linet is more confident after the interaction with the students. She has designed posters to promote the training she is offering on baking. This will complement her baking service which is growing as orders come in for birthday and wedding cakes and she has regular orders for local clients.
Alice, the thriving chicken farmer, is now on WhatsApp marketing. Our students are keen on social media marketing and it was great that Alice is also ready for it. She will soon be having marketing space on Facebook. She now has 3200 chickens and the number is growing. She is looking to either obtain more land or have more than one level for keeping the chickens.
We will be looking carefully at the impact that Sujali is having on the social and economic aspects of the women’s lives. While some of the women are thriving, there are inevitably several who are not progressing at the same rate and still finding difficulties in managing their businesses on top of their busy lives and commitments.
Mary Kiguru, July 2015