Miss Nakagolo & Mr. Badiru!

Nakagolo Jamawa is delighted to share with us how CFE changed her story. Before the program started in her community, she used to have a lot of fights with her husband and still bears marks of healed scars on her skin. She tells us, “My family had totally failed, we used to fight a lot with my husband because every time I would go to him and ask him for money and he didn’t have, he would become violent.”
At the time when CFE started the training in her community she never had the morale to go attend unless there was a hand-out to be dished out after attending. However it was not long before she realised that what was being shared was of greater value than a hand-out. She ended up attending all the days of the workshop. Jamawa during the training picked up the lesson on partnerships. They taught them that they can form partnerships and work together to build businesses. Immediately she teamed up with her friends and they offered hired labour in exchange for seedlings of Sukuma wiki. The person they worked for was also kind enough to teach them how to grow it.
Once they had got the start-up capital in form of seeds they identified a piece of land that belonged to one of their group members and they planted the Sukuma wiki. Within a month, they started harvesting and each of them sold and raised money to own a separate business. Jamawa started a business making samosas a popular breakfast snack and started selling from a stall setup at her home. She occasionally supplements on this with vegetables plus fruits as long as there is a profit
margin for her. Little by little, God has been lifting her out of the shame they had once lived in. She is happy that now she can support her family on top of what the husband contributes. They now work together and as a result they have seen growth with improved household incomes. Basing on her
earlier experience in her marriage Jamawa says, “there are two bad things in a home; adultery and not wanting to work as a woman. If you eliminate those you will be happy.”
She added that, “I have also become an educator in my community, and now we have an association that meets and supports every member in both good and bad times. I bring together different people in the community and I teach them to have a business mind. I teach them to see the opportunities around us. For example there is a lady who used to make pancakes and then send her child around to hawk them, I advised her against the child hawking pancakes because he was missing school. I advised her to she set up a stall at her home where people can easily see her pancakes and buy. Then whoever eats the pan cakes and loves them will go tell others and send people to come buy. After a while I met with the lady and she thanked me for the advice I gave her.”
The biggest win for Jamawa was getting a better home and restoration of her family as she explains, “We were living in a very bad structure. My children were old enough the time we used to fight and they understood that the cause of our fights was mainly poverty at home, there was no money. But after I attended CFE and put into practice what I learnt, they noticed that things changed in how we relate as their parents. There is peace in our home now. I have my husband’s support now, he encourages me to go for trainings whenever there is call.”
Together with the husband they are part of a savings group and they save four thousand shillings
every week. Members can borrow this money and return it with interest. They also keep some goats now.

They plan to build her father in-law a better house using their earnings and see all their children through school. It’s not good when a child is sent back home for fees but they are glad that now they can support their children through school.