FROM SAVINGS TO SUCCESS IN SMALL BUSINESS
BIRTKUWAN ANULO – 18 years For Birtkuwan, it all boils down to saving. And to save you must be ready to deny yourself. At 18 years of age, she’s quickly learning that money only grows when you put it away, not when you spend it. She’s a member of the Kiemese Saving and Loans Association […]
I PLAN TO EXPAND MY BUSINESS
WUBE BELETE – 18 years Wube knows a thing or two about living with your in-laws. She, at 18, attended school but couldn’t proceed past grade 8. She met and married Gebre Mate, 20, who works as a motorbike driver. They moved into his family home. The young couple have a baby who is over […]
EMPOWERING FUTURES: TAMENECH AND AYELE’S JOURNEY TO FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE
TAMENECH AYELE – 19 years Tamenech Ayele and Ayele Tusa live in a small rented house with their one-year-old baby. During the day the house is hot and the baby cries a lot. They are a young couple, scraping by. Tamenech is 19 years old, and Ayele is 28. She’s a high school graduate while […]
NAVIGATING ADOLESCENCE WITH CONFIDENCE AND CONTROL
TOLA – 17 years When she turned 17 years old, Tola’s body started behaving like it belonged to someone else. First, her menstrual cycle became unmanageable. She was always fatigued and listless during her period. She also started noticing that she was thinking of boys in a way that made her blush. She was thinking […]
9JA GIRLS REDEFINED MY STORY
IBIKUNLE OLAITAN – 15 years More than anything, she remembers the excruciating labour. The peeling blue paint of the hospital’s walls. She recalls the deadness of the rotary fan above that ignored the heat of the room. Heat and terror gathered around her. She thought to herself; Is this how I die? “I remember pushing […]
FROM SKEPTICISM TO EMPOWERMENT WITH MATASA MATAN AREWA
HABIBA FULANI- 19 years “My first impression of the program was that it was a complete waste of time,” Habiba, 19, says of the day a voluntary community mobilizer approached her to talk about Matasa Matan Arewa (MMA). She was at home carrying out her daily chores. “I had my child to take care of, […]
MMA LIFE FAMILY AND HEALTH SESSIONS SHAPED MY AGENCY
MAIJIDDA DANAZUMI -19 years Everything passes through the husband. That’s one of the wisdom of being married in her community, Maijidda Danazumi, 19 years old and married with one child knows this unspoken fact. However, timing is everything. One night, as she was serving her husband his favourite meal in the flickering light of the […]
BINTI SHUPAVU SHAPED MY LIFE
ANASTASIA MURUNGU – 18 years It was the dimples on the boy; two craters filled with temptations. At 15, Anastasia fell for Baraka who sent her young life in a whirlwind. “It started innocently enough,” she says. “He’d walk me home after school. Or bring me fruits in school.” Then she started skipping school. “I’d […]