Entrepreneurship and Business development
Challenge
Lack of financial resources: Many young women/girls lack the financial resources required to start and sustain a business. They may not have access to loans, grants, or other forms of financial support to launch their businesses.
Limited education: lack of education and skills is a significant barrier to entrepreneurship among young women/girls in Kakamega County. Many have limited formal education and may not have the skills and knowledge required to start and run a business.
Social stigma: Young women/girls especially school dropouts often face social stigma and discrimination, which can make it difficult for them to access support and resources to start and run a business. They may also face challenges in marketing their products and services due to social stigma.
Strategies we use
Economic Empowerment
WE REACH employs an integrated approach using football to attract young women/girls to safe spaces (football field) to access support and resources to start and run a business and business skills program that provide practical, hands-on training and support to its clients. It is designed to ignite entrepreneurial potential in young women/girls with low literacy, leading them to start and expand businesses. Its focus is to create sustainable opportunities for people to lift their families out of poverty.
Social enterprise program
In this program, each of our self-help groups of ten women/girls receives services like entrepreneurship and financial literacy education; table banking and merry-go-rounds as examples of small savings schemes for self-loaning; a low-interest loan cycle of Ksh. 10,000 given to the entire group; a "standard" financial loan of between Ksh. 20,000 and Ksh. 40,000 per person over 2 years; business monitoring and mentoring; and leadership training.
