Balolwa

In February 2020, Balolwa, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, completed RefugePoint’s Business Development Skills training and received a small grant to expand her business selling tomatoes. Balolwa used the grant to add onions and garlic to her vegetable stand. Her business was doing well, but in May 2020, all of Balolwa’s vegetables were stolen at the market. Unfortunately, many of our clients reported an increase in theft and insecurity as a result of the pandemic. Since Balolwa had put aside savings, she was able to use that money to restart her business and had a lockable storage box built to prevent future theft.

Despite Balolwa’s resilience and business acumen, her sales dropped during the pandemic, as they did for businesses worldwide. In May 2020, Balolwa began receiving food support from RefugePoint so that she could focus on keeping her business afloat.

“When I started receiving food support, I saw improvements in my family. The business was meager during the pandemic. It would take me two to three times longer than usual to sell even one crate of tomatoes, but I wasn’t worried because I knew that at least we had food in the house. In the future, I see my life will be much better than it used to be. I have hope now,” Balolwa told us, as she turned to help a customer at her vegetable stand.