Micro-Enterprise
Hope Grows With a Crop of New Businesses
- People of Nakuru
- Gladys
- Gladys getting eggs
- Gladys shares her story
- Maria in the garden
- Joyce heads to her shop
- Lucy gathers coal
- Masai land irrigation
- Miriam
- Miriam gets poultry feed
CBN.com – KENYA - In a country renown for its wildlife and culture, poverty and lack overshadow whole villages outside Nakuru, Kenya.
“We used to wake up in the morning filled with worry,” Maria says.
But that isn’t the case anymore. Maria is one of 50 families whose hope is now growing right along with their new businesses.
“This project has made a big difference in our lives,” she says. “Now we have everything, money, and food. We get what we need from the garden and we sell the rest at the market. Our children are very healthy, and we have extra money.”
Thanks to the vegetable garden and irrigation project she now owns.
“I don’t know what we would have done without Operation Blessing,” Maria says.
Operation Blessing learned of the need in the community through local church pastors, Alfred and Faith Bogonko. For many years they had been desperately praying for a way to help their neighbors.
“There was a sense of hopelessness amongst the people. People with children, they didn’t know how to feed them or what to do,” says Pastor Faith Bogonko.
Operation Blessing provided the starter materials for a variety of businesses and taught the people how to operate them. Soon lives began to change. People could worry less about how they would survive. Now they don’t have to struggle as much and they know they aren’t alone.
Joyce, the proud owner of a new grocery shop, says, “It has really changed our lives and given me comfort. I know my children are happy and eating well. And I see there is someone who is concerned about us.”
One woman started a bakery. A single mom opened a jewelry business. And another woman is selling chicken.
Pastor Faith says, “It has really empowered them. People are really excited about Operation Blessing.”
It didn’t take long for some new owners like Lucy to realize they need to plan for the future.
“It has really helped me because now I’m able to eat every day. I buy milk, soap, and cooking oil—everything I need,” says Lucy, who owns a coal business. “And I use some of the profit to buy more charcoal, so I can continue to grow my business.”
Not only are these families sustaining themselves and improving their own health, now many of them are also attending church. Pastors Alfred and Faith say it’s because, “We’ve seen that God cares for every need—spiritual and physical!”
Church membership has increased from two families to 70 people in just a few months; and they’re giving enough money to the church that the pastors are able to help ease the burden on others in the community too.
“We can provide for our family again, and pay our children’s school fees,” says one church member. “We [also] give to the church so they can serve others who are in need. So everyone is benefiting from this business. Thank you Operation Blessing and CBN!”
Thanks to CBN’s Operation Blessing, businesses are flourishing and this community is looking forward to climbing out of the pit of poverty for good. Through your partnership with CBN, you can bring the gospel and practical help through micro-enterprise projects like this one to people around the world.
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