Empowering Women to become financial independence By Daisy Onkoba

Where I come from, girls as young as 15 years are usually exposed to practices such as early marriage, sexual and gender-based violence, a tradition in which girls are engaged to older men for sexual purposes.

These cultural norms and tradition have been giving me sleepless night and I thought there was a need to empower and advocate for better rights for women, and teach fellow women and girls about the dangers they face when harmful cultural practices are followed and look for alternative ways that can sustain and improve their livelihood by generating income and providing for their families.

When I joined world pulse through social platform and started reading stories of change from women around the world, I was inspired and saw the need to use my skills to empower and educate women from disadvantaged family. In 2016, I got a chance to attend World pulse training and managed to meet a kind lady who i shared my thought of coming up with a financial independence plan that can enable women learn about money management and methods of accessing micro-credit, such as table banking instead of engaging on sexual activity for money. She was pleased with my idea and advised me to follow my dream and promised to hold my hand.

With the knowledge I got from world pulse training and networking, I managed to bring 10 women and started a table banking whereby each contributing KES 50 every week. All the money contributed is pooled at the end of each month, and it is used to provide loans to two individuals. This loan is later repaid with interest within a stipulated time agreed by the members. Through the initiative, women have become more financially independent. Some have invested in a small business of selling tomatoes and vegetables, which in turn has improved their livelihood by generating income and providing for their families and even pays school fees for their children whereby initially they were not able to afford. This has shifted power relations in families, with women able to control how they use the loans they receive.

 However, the initiative has shown there is a need for training and capacity building. As the savings and income-generating activities of the women increases, they will start to handle large sums of money. This requires them to have mechanisms in place that will give them the capacity to managing this level of financial growth.