Original Story Published by: Dominic Kirui for Women’s Advancement Deeply
Photo Source: ©Amazon Web Services
In Part 1 of a two-part report on the informal banks that help women secure financial stability, Women’s Advancement Deeply looks at a savings group in Kenya that grants independence to the women who join it.
Orge Konchora always wanted her children to go to school, but her husband could not raise all the fees from his small salary as a driver, and she knew she had to help out.
Although the family also had some livestock, the animals were owned entirely by her husband and most died during a drought. This meant the couple had to make an extra effort to pay their children’s school fees and meet their household expenses.
This was not easy for the 53-year-old mother of two because in the Gabra community from which she hails – as in many of the pastoralist communities that inhabit Kenya’s dry north – a woman is not allowed to own any property, be it land or livestock.
So Konchora joined one of the savings groups started by some of the women from her village, and from other nearby villages, to help them take control of their income; these have been the women’s only source of income for decades. As a result, both of her children are now at university in Nairobi, the nation’s capital.
“Life was tough. I was lucky to be living near the highway, so I could make and sell tea and bread to the Chinese constructors who were building the Nairobi-Moyale highway. But that came and went. Now I am always in business and can pay my children’s school fees even when my husband is struggling financially,” Konchora says.
