We are finally underway with our micro-enterprises. We are so excited for this new project (technically 13 new projects, since each woman will start her own small business). We have been speaking about the chicken program for many months now and what the project actually looks like has changed and progressed over time. I, (Yolanda) met with each of the ladies individually, after they all attended the chicken seminar workshops. I wanted to make sure that after understanding the level of work and what it will entail, that this is what they wanted to do. We want to make sure to set each woman up for success, but first and foremost, it is key that SHE wants to do this. In a group, it’s easy to be swayed or pressured into thinking that there’s only one solution so it was vital to meet with each lady individually and hear their hearts, their ideas and how they saw themselves in the future. These individual meetings really opened our eyes and gave the women more power and more control over THEIR project and ultimately their business.
One of the things that came out of the meetings was that four of the women desired to pursue a different kind of business – for multiple reasons: lack of land, health, security, personal skills, etc. And thus, started a brainstorming session where we discussed the best and most feasible option that would provide the same level of profit or more, as the ladies who would start their own chicken business.
Below are 4 of the ladies who we helped start a business – everything from funds, budgeting, sourcing clients, determining profits in advance, business feasibility, etc.
Note: A woman is called Amai or Mai (Mother) and then the name of their eldest child; there’s one exception below because her only child has passed away so she’s called Amai or Mai (Mrs.) and last name.
One of the things that came out of the meetings was that four of the women desired to pursue a different kind of business – for multiple reasons: lack of land, health, security, personal skills, etc. And thus, started a brainstorming session where we discussed the best and most feasible option that would provide the same level of profit or more, as the ladies who would start their own chicken business.
Below are 4 of the ladies who we helped start a business – everything from funds, budgeting, sourcing clients, determining profits in advance, business feasibility, etc.
Note: A woman is called Amai or Mai (Mother) and then the name of their eldest child; there’s one exception below because her only child has passed away so she’s called Amai or Mai (Mrs.) and last name.
Amai Whisper
Amai Whisper does not own her own land and therefore, the chicken business was not a viable option for her. However, her husband has sold fish in the past and she knew that with a larger start-up budget that she would be able to start her own business that provided enough profit that would produce a comfortable income for her family.
Amai Whisper’s first problem was needing a freezer so that they could purchase a large amount of fish and store it before actually selling them. She also needed to find a new place to live that actually had electricity and she needed to purchase a permit that would allow her to sell fish anywhere and to anyone. So, the first thing we did was search for a good second hand freezer, and a benefit would be an upright freezer, which would require less room and easy access to all the fish. After buying a freezer in Harare, we transported it to Amai Whisper’s new residence, one with electricity. She used smart bargaining skills to acquire the one room residence; at almost the same price she was paying rent before (with no electricity available).
We provided the funds for her to acquire a permit and covered one-month’s electricity to get her started. We also covered the cost of the first 200kg of fish. She had to save money to acquire the necessary fees for transportation to purchase the fish.
She is now up-and-running and fully functioning. She is set-up to make a handsome profit at the end of the month, which will allow her to cover the costs for the following month and therefore, be self-sustaining. She is required to keep all receipts and records, as well as document all expenses and sales. At the end of the month, we will go over her budget together and determine any pitfalls, praise any successes and plan for the following month.
Mai Whisper is very excited and ecstatic at the fact that she will be able to afford to send her daughter, Whisper to school this term as well as cover some personal costs such as food and rent.
Amai Whisper’s first problem was needing a freezer so that they could purchase a large amount of fish and store it before actually selling them. She also needed to find a new place to live that actually had electricity and she needed to purchase a permit that would allow her to sell fish anywhere and to anyone. So, the first thing we did was search for a good second hand freezer, and a benefit would be an upright freezer, which would require less room and easy access to all the fish. After buying a freezer in Harare, we transported it to Amai Whisper’s new residence, one with electricity. She used smart bargaining skills to acquire the one room residence; at almost the same price she was paying rent before (with no electricity available).
We provided the funds for her to acquire a permit and covered one-month’s electricity to get her started. We also covered the cost of the first 200kg of fish. She had to save money to acquire the necessary fees for transportation to purchase the fish.
She is now up-and-running and fully functioning. She is set-up to make a handsome profit at the end of the month, which will allow her to cover the costs for the following month and therefore, be self-sustaining. She is required to keep all receipts and records, as well as document all expenses and sales. At the end of the month, we will go over her budget together and determine any pitfalls, praise any successes and plan for the following month.
Mai Whisper is very excited and ecstatic at the fact that she will be able to afford to send her daughter, Whisper to school this term as well as cover some personal costs such as food and rent.
The other side of their room (for a family of 4), with this freezer that is out of order. They use it as a cooler when transporting the fish.
Amai Choto
Amai Choto lost both her husband and son within 3 months of each other and became homeless overnight. However, she has a piece of land and had taught herself some valuable skills, such as sewing. She built herself a basic structure with some logs and plastic, worked hard and saved to afford to build her one-room home on her land. She has also planted herself fruit trees, a vegetable garden and dug herself an outside toilet.
Amai Choto has a manual hand sewing machine, but after the sewing lessons in April, truly desired an electrical one and the option to start her own business. First, she needed to have electricity installed at her home, an electric pedal for her sewing machine, a few basic sewing supplies and she is ready. We also covered her first month’s electrical bill to help her get started.
She is now sewing garments for different clients and has started making a variety of items. She makes beautiful bedding, especially and is so very excited to work more efficiently with her electrical pedal and lights at night.
She too will be required to record her sale, budget her electricity, and document her pitfalls and successes – at the end of the month we will review her progress and advise where necessary.
Not only is Mai Choto able to be self-sustainable and able to improve her own living conditions, but she is also able to help support her granddaughter’s education since her son has passed on.
Amai Choto has a manual hand sewing machine, but after the sewing lessons in April, truly desired an electrical one and the option to start her own business. First, she needed to have electricity installed at her home, an electric pedal for her sewing machine, a few basic sewing supplies and she is ready. We also covered her first month’s electrical bill to help her get started.
She is now sewing garments for different clients and has started making a variety of items. She makes beautiful bedding, especially and is so very excited to work more efficiently with her electrical pedal and lights at night.
She too will be required to record her sale, budget her electricity, and document her pitfalls and successes – at the end of the month we will review her progress and advise where necessary.
Not only is Mai Choto able to be self-sustainable and able to improve her own living conditions, but she is also able to help support her granddaughter’s education since her son has passed on.
Amai Vincent
Amai Vincent is excellent at both knitting and crocheting. Due to her husbands bad health, she did not feel the chicken project would be a good fit for her. She knew there was a great need for affordable school sweaters (part of the winter uniform) within her community and she knew she could meet that need with only a few resources.
We assisted her with the funds to purchase yarn in all the necessary school colors, as well as a whole set of knitting needles in different sizes.
She purchased the yarn in bulk and immediately started knitting sweaters for uniforms. She has already networked with the local police station and hospital to knit sweaters as part of their uniforms.
When sweaters are not in high demand, she still has the ability to crochet beautiful tablecloths and tops and dresses with crochet thread.
Her biggest income will be during the winter months, so she will knit throughout the year for the large demand in winter. However, this also means she will need to budget accordingly and we are here for her to guide her in the process.
When Andrew picked her up for our weekly gathering, she was knitting as she was walking across the road. The beauty of her job is that she is able to do it anywhere and everywhere.
She is so excited to start producing an income, which will allow her to cover the cost of her nephew’s education, whom she is raising. Her job also gives her the ability to care for her husband, without fear of losing her work because of needing to take a day off.
We assisted her with the funds to purchase yarn in all the necessary school colors, as well as a whole set of knitting needles in different sizes.
She purchased the yarn in bulk and immediately started knitting sweaters for uniforms. She has already networked with the local police station and hospital to knit sweaters as part of their uniforms.
When sweaters are not in high demand, she still has the ability to crochet beautiful tablecloths and tops and dresses with crochet thread.
Her biggest income will be during the winter months, so she will knit throughout the year for the large demand in winter. However, this also means she will need to budget accordingly and we are here for her to guide her in the process.
When Andrew picked her up for our weekly gathering, she was knitting as she was walking across the road. The beauty of her job is that she is able to do it anywhere and everywhere.
She is so excited to start producing an income, which will allow her to cover the cost of her nephew’s education, whom she is raising. Her job also gives her the ability to care for her husband, without fear of losing her work because of needing to take a day off.
Amai Dean
Amai Dean considered many different options to start a business. Due to her in-laws owning the land where she lives, she did not feel the chicken program was the wisest decision – she wanted the business to be completely her own.
During VBS/HBF, it was obvious that she was very good at teaching the children, so we originally pursued the option of her getting a teaching degree or just a diploma. She has finished her high school education and with good grades, so it seemed a feasible option. However, this option is long-term and will create no income for her to cover her son's education in the meantime. Her husband is qualified and if he could get a job, their needs would be met. However, jobs are extremely scarce in Zimbabwe and there is no guarantee that a degree will result in a job. Also, a teaching job would mean most likely moving. A new, young teacher will most definitely be required to start in a rural area and they will not be given the choice of location. I highly discouraged her pursuing something that would remove her from her son and husband and most likely result in her in-laws raising her child. This is what happens here…remember about Grace in our lost blog post, she finds herself in this situation.
So we had to brainstorm some more. She kept asking me for ideas, but I insisted that SHE needed to come up with something because it would be her business. After a few weeks ,she finally provided a viable option, bale purchases.
She planned to purchase a bale or good quality clothes that she would resell. These bales come from overseas and are mostly second hand clothing items ,but a high quality bale (sold at a higher price) has good clothes. Each bale has 400-600 items, higher for children's clothes and lower for adult clothing.
She figured out the logistics of where to purchase the bales, the cost of transportation, how much to resell items for, how long it would take and what the greatest need was in her community.
We were just able to recently provide her with funds for transportation and her first bale this past week. Unfortunately, we could only give her half cash and half mobile money, which means she is needing to daily stand in lines to draw the mobile money as cash in order to move forward. Cash is an issue here and she is only able to draw about $10 per day, but at least this allows her to take some ownership in doing some work ahead of time for her business.
Looking at the logistics, she stands the chance to make the highest profit, but she also has the risk of being left with many unsold items. Nevertheless, her research has shown that she is guaranteed to sell enough to purchase a second bale, and make a nice profit.
At the end of the month, we will revisit her findings, her profit margin and her methodology of where she sets up to sell each day (she moves a couple times a day in order to reach the highest population of people in one location at a time).
She is VERY excited and keeps showing me figures of what she could possibly make. We are encouraging her to have a modest outlook of her profit line, but are rather confident of a successful return. Now she will be able to cover her son’s education and assist in their living conditions (no electricity and no running water, except for a pipe outside their home).
During VBS/HBF, it was obvious that she was very good at teaching the children, so we originally pursued the option of her getting a teaching degree or just a diploma. She has finished her high school education and with good grades, so it seemed a feasible option. However, this option is long-term and will create no income for her to cover her son's education in the meantime. Her husband is qualified and if he could get a job, their needs would be met. However, jobs are extremely scarce in Zimbabwe and there is no guarantee that a degree will result in a job. Also, a teaching job would mean most likely moving. A new, young teacher will most definitely be required to start in a rural area and they will not be given the choice of location. I highly discouraged her pursuing something that would remove her from her son and husband and most likely result in her in-laws raising her child. This is what happens here…remember about Grace in our lost blog post, she finds herself in this situation.
So we had to brainstorm some more. She kept asking me for ideas, but I insisted that SHE needed to come up with something because it would be her business. After a few weeks ,she finally provided a viable option, bale purchases.
She planned to purchase a bale or good quality clothes that she would resell. These bales come from overseas and are mostly second hand clothing items ,but a high quality bale (sold at a higher price) has good clothes. Each bale has 400-600 items, higher for children's clothes and lower for adult clothing.
She figured out the logistics of where to purchase the bales, the cost of transportation, how much to resell items for, how long it would take and what the greatest need was in her community.
We were just able to recently provide her with funds for transportation and her first bale this past week. Unfortunately, we could only give her half cash and half mobile money, which means she is needing to daily stand in lines to draw the mobile money as cash in order to move forward. Cash is an issue here and she is only able to draw about $10 per day, but at least this allows her to take some ownership in doing some work ahead of time for her business.
Looking at the logistics, she stands the chance to make the highest profit, but she also has the risk of being left with many unsold items. Nevertheless, her research has shown that she is guaranteed to sell enough to purchase a second bale, and make a nice profit.
At the end of the month, we will revisit her findings, her profit margin and her methodology of where she sets up to sell each day (she moves a couple times a day in order to reach the highest population of people in one location at a time).
She is VERY excited and keeps showing me figures of what she could possibly make. We are encouraging her to have a modest outlook of her profit line, but are rather confident of a successful return. Now she will be able to cover her son’s education and assist in their living conditions (no electricity and no running water, except for a pipe outside their home).
Chicken Project
Nine of the women are moving forward with individual chicken businesses. Each of them have been given the necessary funds to start the building of the chicken coup. Due to security issues, the structure is a little more costly than would be necessary in a more rural area.
Each of the ladies did their own research with costs on materials, labor and transport. They are working together as a team as they move forward. All of them have started the building process and most have the foundation and pillars complete.
Unfortunately, we have not raised all the necessary funds for this project. We did mention this in previous blogs. We are desperate to help them to complete their structures, getting all the necessary supplies, i.e. chicks and feed, etc. However, we need an additional $255 EACH, to finish the structures. The mission team returned with tote bags and beautiful jewelry sets that the ladies had made. The ladies on the team hosted a party and were able to sell quite a bit of the jewelry items and all the tote bags were already sold before they went back Stateside. All of those resources have already been put into the structures – that decision was made by the ladies.
PLEASE will you consider giving a special gift toward these projects? For $255 you allow a woman to finish her structure, so that we can move on to the next stage. The longer it takes, the longer these women must wait to cover school fees for their children and grandchildren and the longer it takes to help them become self-sustainable. This is extremely difficult now that 4 of the women are already able to make a profit and produce an income. After the building, it will take an additional 6 weeks before the chickens will produce an income. Please help us, help them.
Each of the ladies did their own research with costs on materials, labor and transport. They are working together as a team as they move forward. All of them have started the building process and most have the foundation and pillars complete.
Unfortunately, we have not raised all the necessary funds for this project. We did mention this in previous blogs. We are desperate to help them to complete their structures, getting all the necessary supplies, i.e. chicks and feed, etc. However, we need an additional $255 EACH, to finish the structures. The mission team returned with tote bags and beautiful jewelry sets that the ladies had made. The ladies on the team hosted a party and were able to sell quite a bit of the jewelry items and all the tote bags were already sold before they went back Stateside. All of those resources have already been put into the structures – that decision was made by the ladies.
PLEASE will you consider giving a special gift toward these projects? For $255 you allow a woman to finish her structure, so that we can move on to the next stage. The longer it takes, the longer these women must wait to cover school fees for their children and grandchildren and the longer it takes to help them become self-sustainable. This is extremely difficult now that 4 of the women are already able to make a profit and produce an income. After the building, it will take an additional 6 weeks before the chickens will produce an income. Please help us, help them.
Host a Jewelry Party
As a way to help these ladies reach their goals, they have made paper bead jewelry. The items of jewelry are lovely, a variety of colors and designs. There are necklaces, earrings, bracelets and sets.
If you would be interested in hosting a jewelry party, please fill out a contact form on our website with your details. You will be sent all the available jewelry items in the mail, along with a short video of the ladies, suggested prices, and any others resources you may need to host the party at your home. Note that each item of jewelry is hand made by a woman right here in Zimbabwe and that 100% of the profits produced by this jewelry will go toward helping a woman start her own business and be self-sustainable.
For more information feel free to e-mail me directly with any questions.
If you would be interested in hosting a jewelry party, please fill out a contact form on our website with your details. You will be sent all the available jewelry items in the mail, along with a short video of the ladies, suggested prices, and any others resources you may need to host the party at your home. Note that each item of jewelry is hand made by a woman right here in Zimbabwe and that 100% of the profits produced by this jewelry will go toward helping a woman start her own business and be self-sustainable.
For more information feel free to e-mail me directly with any questions.
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Sad, Unexpected News
We received an unexpected phone call on June 3 from a family member, telling us that my (Yolanda's) father had passed away. This was quite sudden, since he did not have a prior illness or disease. We immediately packed a bag and traveled the 4 hours toward my Dad's home to be with his wife. All my siblings had been notified by this point and they too made their way to the farm over the next couple of days - coming from as far away as Australia. Many arrangements were made during the following week and we celebrated my Dad's life on the following Friday, the 9th. We had a short church service in memory of him and traveled out to the farm to bury him among other family members in the small family cemetery. We stayed on a few more days to help with some final details, as other siblings and family members needed to get back to commitments. Needless to say, the last 2 weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions. Our hearts are still hurting even though we are well aware that my Dad is with Jesus, since he was a fellow believer. Yesterday, on Father's Day, was especially difficult. We ask that you continue to keep us all in your prayers during this difficult time, as we continue to mourn and grieve the loss of my dear father.
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