Joyce Ndinda Kivuva is a 64-year-old mother of Seven, three girls, four boys and 11 grandchildren. She is a member of Mwangaza Group in Matua West, Mikuyuni sub-location of Makueni County. The group was established in March 2024 and has a membership of 25 people; two men, three youth and 20 women. This was after Fadhili Trust sensitized them on the importance of joining a Village Savings and Loans (VSL) group as a tool for fostering economic growth, social cohesion and resilience amongst members. Most group members defected from other merry-go round groups to join the Village Savings and Loans (VSL) group as they experienced zero growth. Over the six-months of their existence, the group has gained different skills and knowledge from Fadhili Trust including Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA), Gender Based Violence, Environment and Village Savings and Loans (VSL).

Prior to joining Mwangaza Group in March 2024, Joyce practiced farming of maize, sorghum and cassava at small scale but due to erratic rainfall patterns, there were times she would get good yields but at times very minimal harvest, and these seasons were recurrent. Such times, she fully depended on the husband and she could feel the burden was too much for him as they also have children that they are educating. It is then that she made a decision to join Mwangaza Group where she made savings for one month and qualified to borrow Kshs.3000 from her shares.  In a bid to get pre-occupied, she chose to give kitchen garden a try, where she bought three types of vegetable seedlings; Okra, ‘Sukuma Wiki’ and Spinach, all at Kshs.350. She paid a casual to dig two sunken basins at her garden at Kshs.500 in addition to the already five sunken basins that she had dug on her own. With the balance, she bought a few household utilities and managed to pay up for her shares in the VSL group. Joyce managed to repay the Kshs.3,000 and borrowed Kshs.10,000.

Ms. Joyce Ndinda with her brood of hens that she bought with her VSL loan

With the Kshs.10,000, Joyce ventured into poultry business where she bought 30-one day old improved chicks at Kshs.105 each, a total of Kshs.3,150, Kshs.2,700 she bought a healthful starter feed for the chicks and Kshs.1,000 she bought four doses of medicated feed additive concentrated with vitamin formulation that is blended to boost growth in chicks. Part of the remaining balance she added to her shares in the VSL group and bought additional vitamin formulation for the subsequent months. At two and a half months of rearing the chicks, Joyce has been able to sell off at once 28 chicks out of the 30 chicks bought, each at Kshs.400, a total of Ksh.11,200, having bought them at Kshs.2,940. She now plans to buy another batch of 50 chicks as she has seen and experienced good profit margins in her poultry business.

She reckons that she never envisioned herself handling a vast amount of money within the six months of being a member of Mwangaza group from the sales of hens and is indebted to Fadhili Trust team for posing the challenge and gradually eradicating financial illiteracy. Additionally, she realizes profit from sales coming from her small kitchen garden apart from it providing improved dietary options for her family. Group members are also growing indigenous tree species in a bid to embrace agroforestry. The financial empowerment and skills gained on different aspects give her a good standing within the community as she is also able to challenge other women to contribute meaningfully to family growth and actualize their financial independence.

Ms. Joyce Ndinda at her kitchen garden where she makes considerable sales

In partnership with Tear Fund Canada and Canadian Food Grain Bank (CFGB), Fadhili Trust through its Nature+ project is seeing to it that it actualizes the Theory of Change which suggests that economic assets, stronger family relationships, and effective social networks through peer groups such as VSL, builds resilience capacities, and this is based on growing evidence amongst community members within Mikuyuni sub-location. The Nature+ VSL project component has seen unexpected positive outcomes that members testify to making friends, building confidence, raising self esteem, and learning to appreciate people’s behavior. Additionally, women appreciated the model for bringing development which has helped foster family cohesion and reduce their dependence on their husbands, which was a main cause of gender-based violence in many homes.