Esther

In 2013, Esther* and her ten children were forced to flee their home country of Congo after her husband, a human rights activist, was abducted, and the rest of the family was brutally attacked. In Nairobi, Esther and her children lived with a friend in a one-room home and were barely able to afford one meal per day. Although Esther was earning a small income through selling cassava leaves, a traditional vegetable, and contributing her income towards rent and food, the living situation for the family was unsafe.

A year after her arrival to Nairobi, a RefugePoint Community Navigator introduced Esther to RefugePoint, where Esther and her family were assessed to be at significant risk, and received a wide range of services, including food assistance, group counseling sessions for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), assistance in finding a new and improved housing situation, and assistance with non-food items like mattresses, blankets and bed sheets. Additionally, Esther completed RefugePoint’s business skills training and received a grant of Ksh. 13,000 ($130 USD), which enabled her to grow her small business of preparing and selling traditional vegetables and fish.

Esther used some of the grant money to purchase a freezer to store her prepared food products for next-day deliveries. This saved Esther half a day’s work, as she no longer had to wake up early, travel to the farm to collect vegetables, and process the vegetables before Delivery. Esther continued her engagement with RefugePoint, attending business mentorship sessions, which allowed her to brainstorm ways to build her business with other RefugePoint clients. In September 2017, Esther received an additional grant of Ksh. 20,000 ($200 USD), which she used to buy oil, dried fish, and kitenge cloth, to expand her business. Esther’s business is currently doing well.

She says that the greatest skills she learned from the RefugePoint business training were networking and identifying her competition. She has now established a wide customer base, and relies greatly on referrals.

*Name changed for anonymity