During RefugePoint’s business training, clients are encouraged to set personal goals that they can work to accomplish within the first three to six months of launching their businesses. Soni, a single mother of two young children, knew exactly what she aimed to achieve: the ability to pay her rent and cover her son’s school fees.
Within just two months of receiving a small business grant and launching a business selling vegetables, fruits, and a popular fried dough snack called mandazi, Soni achieved both of those goals. Soni and her family fled their home country of Congo after facing insecurity there. While fleeing, Soni became separated from her husband and has not heard from him since.
After Soni and her children arrived in Nairobi in 2014, she struggled to meet her family’s basic needs and relied on income from unstable jobs.
In 2018, a RefugePoint Community Navigator in Soni’s neighborhood identified the family for assistance. After conducting an assessment, RefugePoint began providing the family with food assistance and school fees for Soni’s eleven-year-old daughter. At that time, Soni was selected to participate in RefugePoint’s livelihoods program, through which she completed business training, developed a business plan, and was granted $200 to launch a fruit and vegetable stall.
“The biggest lesson that I learned from RefugePoint’s business training is about the importance of savings. Before the training, I always used all of my profit. I wasn’t aware that I needed to divide my income into profits, money to re-invest in the business, and savings. I also learned a lot about having a plan for my business and setting goals,” Soni shared with us.
“There are many other fruit and vegetable stalls in my neighborhood. What sets mine apart is that I also sell mandazi, and customers are drawn to my stall because my mandazi is the best. I wake up and go to the market every morning by 4:30 to buy the fruits and vegetables for my stall, and then I come home and immediately start making the mandazi before I get the kids ready for school. My clients start purchasing mandazi as early as 5:30 in the morning, so I always need to get up very early and make sure everything is ready by then. Running a food business has been very beneficial for our family. We never go to sleep hungry, and now we have a well-balanced diet.”
Soni is now working hard to achieve her next target: purchasing a bed and mattress for her children. This is what self-reliance looks like.