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Wakina Mama Shupavu – self-aid to provide for old age

Project duration: 4 years (2022–2025)
Country: Kenya
Partner organization: Wakina Mama Shupavu, Kenya

Three women aged between 58 and 63 living in the Nzoia region in Western Kenya have joined forces to start a self-help group. Wakina Mama Shupavu means “strong, hard-working mothers”. To make a living in this region, women need to be both. Their husbands had worked for the near-by sugar mill and also planted sugarcane themselves for many years. However, the company had to be shut down due to mismanagement and corruption. Since then, the farmers and their families have waited for the payments they were due – in vain. This has created a hardship situa-tion that particularly affects older women, who had had to take out a loan for their children’s edu-cation.

Through their self-help group, the initiators hope to generate a revenue for themselves and other women in their community. Their aim is to have enough means to sustain themselves and pay for their healthcare in their old age. The group is open to other women.

Pig breeding is the first project they started by acquiring a sow and a boar. When these breed successfully, the women plan to expand their pig breeding and fattening farm. They then want to invest the proceeds from the sale of meat to a sausage factory to further improve their economic situation.

The support of family members has enabled the three initiators of Wakina Mama Shupavu to reg-ister their self-aid group as a cooperative in Nairobi. This is an important step for this project that has the potential to grow and to move into further fields of activity.