This blog post was written by our Creative Communications & Events Officer, Megan Henderson.
Some of the Baringo beehives.
Recently many of you supported a campaign to buy a new vehicle for our Programme Coordinator in Baringo, Eva. We’re elated to let you know she has that new vehicle and it’s making her work of training rural, remote Savings & Loans Groups much easier, quicker and safer!
Training is the backbone of what we do and our trainer in Kericho, Kenya, Emmy, has also been delivering training on specific, unique business skills.
These two resourceful women are training groups in activities such as bee-keeping, soap making and yoghurt making. This new training is helping members diversify their resources and work together to create an income to benefit their whole Savings Group.
Bee-keeping
In Baringo, you can spot honey in jars all along the roadside - it’s often produced in this region of Kenya. Honey must be of a certain standard to go to a major supplier, meaning most producers just sell within their local community. One of our Savings & Loans Groups has invested in over 250 beehives! The beehives will help them produce high quality honey that can be sold to a large supplier in Nairobi. With help from their trainer, Eva, the group is working together to achieve their goals and create a better business that they may all profit from. Drought has delayed their first honey harvest, but the group will split the profits among the members after their first batch makes it to their supplier in Nairobi.
Soap making
This soap is quite a crazy green colour, but it is changing lives for some of our members. With guidance from our local trainer, Emmy, in Kericho, members learned how to make the soap so they could start selling it in markets. Making the soap themselves cuts down on the supply chain so members benefit more immediately from the profits. Even better - they found a local school to sell the soap to. They’re supporting their community and creating safe, sanitary environments for their children.
Yoghurt making
Also in Kericho, members have begun making yoghurt to sell. Emmy helped the group through the process. Although it is long, many of the members in the group produce milk, so finding another way to utilise that resource made a lot of sense. The group can invest together in the other ingredients required to make it more profitable for all. Working together they produce the yoghurt, pot it and then sell it to other members of the community.
Five Talents is excited to watch our Kenyan programmes grow as our ambitious trainers help members diversify incomes and build businesses, together.