SHDF business training programmes changing lives
Stanencia Mutendera, 46 is a married mother of 4 who lives in Seke district ward 2 (Dema Growth Point). Until 2014, both Stanencia and her husband were not employed. They relied on little proceeds from selling vegetables at Dema and they lived on rented premises.
In January 2015, Stanencia joined a self help programme run by Self Help Development Foundation (SHDF). She started a group called“Progress 1” together with 9 other ladies from her community.
They started saving money on a weekly basis and Stanencia got the opportunity to borrow money from the group which she used as capital to start a poultry business. Her husband on the other hand started travelling to South Africa to buy goods for re-sale.
Both of them were trained in Business management, poultry management and record keeping by SHDF ward facilitators. Through their increased capacities, Stanencia and her husband are now successful small-scale business owners and their family now has a monthly income which ranges between $800 to $900.
Within the Entrepreneurship and Business Development Programme (EBDP), SHDF also linked Stanencia to large supermarkets such as OK Mart and TM where she supplies 200 birds fortnightly. Over a period of only one year, the couple managed to save $11.000 which they used to buy a 500 square meters stand and later built a 7-roomed house.
“My family’s living standards have been uplifted. We are now living happily,” said Stanencia.