Chizi Nyawa
Chizi Nyawa was born in 1944 in the village of Mulunguni, near Samburu, outside Mombasa, Kenya. Her mother died when she was very young, hence she was brought up amid suffering and sorrow since her early childhood. At no one time did she share a moment of happiness in her tender age. Because she was a woman, she did not have the opportunity to receive an education. Chizi was married in 1962. However, marriage did not improve her life.
She and her husband worked tirelessly in people’s farms to get food and earn a few shillings that they saved. They could save at least five shillings every month. Shortly after the end of the farming season, they bought a piece of land for fifty shillings. Mr. Nyawa built a small hut to shelter his family and grass thatched it. Chizi and her husband now began working partly on their farm and partly on other people’s farms to earn a living. They planted mangos, cashews, cassava, maize, peas and oranges. By the end of the second harvesting season, they had enough food to survive and their meager shelter. Her husband, having skill as a carpenter, began to make doors, beds and chairs to sell to neighbors. He chopped timber from the forest for his materials and was able to make Ksh. 100 ($1.30 USD) in a good month. His business was active during the dry season and helped to sustain his family. Once the rains started, he would revert back to his farming activities.
Chizi, in the meantime had 9 children over a 14-year period. The needs of their growing family forced them to once again work on their neighbors’ farms in order to buy books, uniforms and other educational expenses for their children. Despite the continued support for each other to feed, clothe, shelter and educate their children, the situation was so hopeless that their dreams of brightening the future of their children could not be achieved. The children dropped out of school in grade seven due to [lack] of tuition money. Eventually they were able to save and educate one of their sons through grade eight. He could not proceed to secondary school due to insufficient funds. The family resolved to take him to Mazeras Polytechnic where he studied mechanics. One of the daughters studied as far as Form Four at Matuga Girls. The miracle is that she is currently working as a bank worker to Yehu Bank.
As if Chizi’s life was not difficult enough, more problems came when her daughter and son-in-law died. The two deceased left behind two children in the hands of Mama Chizi. She serves as their father and mother. Moreover, she is guardian to five other children of her brother-in-law (brother to her husband) who died together with his wife. She now takes care of seven other children in addition to her own.
In 1998, her desperate situation changed by the coming of Choice Humanitarian to the area. Upon hearing about the organization, Mama Chizi did not wait for a second chance. She quickly joined the Yehu Bank, with her husband’s support. She continued working on other people’s farms to enable her to make the required weekly savings of twenty shillings. Her main goal in joining the program was to get assistance to help her combat her prevailing difficult situation. She received her first loan of 5,000 shillings on 30th August 2000. With the loan money, she started a business – the first ever in her life. She purchased farm produce (bixa and maize) from neighbors and sold them in bulk. Today, Chizi buys bixa from all the bixa farms in her village and the neighboring villages of Mkudutu, Mzamba and Dzombo. She is now one of the most respected buyers of bixa in the area.
Chizi Nyawa, now in her late 50s, is by no means a very successful woman. Her compound is small, consisting of two dome-shaped grass-thatched houses, a big makuti- thatched house and four huts, one half-thatched for her son. The residential house has four rooms, a store, a bedroom for her two daughters and another bedroom that she shares with her husband. In the fourth room lies one old bicycle, old broken wooden chairs, a hand saw, a claw hammer and a broken door frame. 70% of the space in the single-roomed dome-shaped hut is used as a granary. The only asset of her business is a weighing scale and some empty sacks.
But, as a result of her loan, her income has increased from that of an ultra-poor person to what might be considered the middle-class in Kenya. Her daily income now averages 1,200 Kshs ($15 USD). Recall that at one point in their lives her husband was earning $1.30 USD per month. The business has changed Chizi’s life in all aspects. Her living standard has improved a great deal.
When asked what benefit she had received from being a part of the Yehu Bank she said,
“I’m now happy because I have some savings to go to in time of hardships. From my business, I’m now able to repay my loan and save more without any difficulties. Moreover, all of the children under my care are in school. CHOICE has enabled me to pay school fees, buy books, school uniforms, take care of health of each child and feed them properly, irrespective of the season.”From the way she talks, mama Chizi is happy and proud to be associated with CHOICE Yehu Bank program. Finally, she intends to borrow a loan of 10,000 shillings, after fully repaying her first loan. This loan would enable her to expand her existing bixa business and allow her to open a kiosk business at home. This, she says, would enable her to lead a comfortable life, forever out of the misery she has always known.