Starting is usually the hardest part, but once you get the hang of it, the journey gets easier, as long as you have a defined goal, a clear path and a defined target. For Rose Midika, the goal was to be able to provide her children with basic needs and support their education.
Her target was to be financially stable, to fund her livelihood projects. She however saw no clear path to take to be able to accomplish her heart’s desires. She was stuck. She could not start.
Rose got devastated by her husband’s death. The stress of losing him caused her to become physically ill, but she refused to seek medical attention. She felt like life had no meaning without him, but she knew she had to step up for her young children. She knew she had to fill the father’s gap in their lives.
By good luck, Rose was absorbed into United Kenya Rising’s family care program in the year 2016. The support she was offered to help raise her children gave Rose hope. Life was worth to be lived again, if it meant being part of her children’s growth to see them advance in life. With UKR holding her hand, Rose could begin the journey to financial sustainability.
Rose, having a sizeable piece of land, through guidance from UKR’s agricultural officers has maximized its use. She is in the know that she first has to satisfy her family’s nutritional needs, hence the reason why she has used majority of the farms land to plant staple food crops so as to cut the budget of purchasing food she can and channel the money to other projects.
The field of agriculture has proved to be Rose’s strong point in eradicating poverty and hopelessness in her home as her farm is indeed thriving. From the array of green maize, sugarcane, a variety of vegetables to the row of tubers, you can literally tell that food isn’t a problem in Rose’s household.
Rose also keeps a couple animals and birds, including cows, pigs, chicken and doves. The cows are animals she is proud of, them providing sufficient milk for family consumption and also for distribution in the village to earn money. The pigs are reared till they are big enough and market worthy, then are sold to the slaughter for pork.
Standing out in the animals Rose rears are the rabbits. Small, shy and cute, whenever you lay eyes on them you feel the urge to hold them, yet though very profitable, they are so cunning and often wander off, thus the need to keep them in a well enclosed space.
Rose was first skeptical about rearing rabbits but UKR officers talked her into it. Since adopting the advice, she hasn’t regretted the initiative. She reveals that rearing the rabbits hasn’t been easy but it has been worth her time. At first they tested her patience, they would leave their cage and disappear for days, only to return either injured or sick. She thus sought for a more intense shelter where escaping would be harder. She managed.
Rose shares that the rabbits have been her financial pledges many times, in business deals, school fees arears for her kids and even in the payment of local savings group funds. Their reproduction rate in higher, multiplying the numbers.
Rabbit urine is also a strong pesticide, one which she uses on her crops. She attests that being a diversified farmer accrues more profits than losses. One thing’s waste is another thing’s need. She witnesses how the ecosystem works, just as a farmer.
From the profits Rose has accrued from her farm since she started journeying together with UKR, Rose has managed to start a soap business, where after undergoing a livelihood training from UKR’s social workers, she now makes her own soap and sells it.
Even though selling the liquid soap is an activity she does partially, she shares that the profit the business generates fills a gap in her household. She can at least keep some cash for a rainy day, which more than once has come in handy in settling bills.
“I feel so lucky to have found a place to lean on in UKR. Through them I was able to identify my strength and begun working on it. My kids are comfortable in school because I can afford their levies, we don’t go hungry and I have an income generating activity. I can say I am comfortable, courtesy of UKR’s support,” shares a contented Rose.
