Kesho Siku Njema

Kesho Siku Njema foundation, KSNF, hopes to end poverty among the very poor single mothers' households in Meru county. The foundation also aims at improving their nutrition statuses because with poverty comes malnutrition.

KNSF sets up small businesses for these women according to their talents or preferences in their respective villages and manage the businesses for a life time ensuring they run efficiently and generate income for the women to be able to afford nutritious meals and other basic needs.

With KSNF's solution to end poverty, the foundation will reduce cases of stress and depression brought about by poverty and rejection hence reducing cases such as abortions, suicide, child murder, child abandoning, prostitution and stealing. From the solution we hope to end hunger and malnutrition especially in children.

As the businesses grow there will employment opportunities and through these opportunities we will indirectly help other households end poverty and hunger. 

In Kenya there are 14.7M households who live under $2 a day. They can hardly afford a meal a day. They cannot afford balanced diets hence do not consume the nutrients needed to keep them healthy and their immunity strong.

Families led by single mothers who don't have source of income suffer more as compared to families with both parents. They bare all the burden of feeding their children and catering for other basic needs unlike families with both parents who can share such responsibilities.

With the high rate of unemployment in Kenya it is hard for these women to secure jobs. They also don't have capital to start businesses because they live from hand to mouth.

Casual jobs are what these women depend on to feed their families. They are, however, not guaranteed to get these jobs daily because the field is crowded.

Due to poverty these women can hardly afford basic needs and they and their children mostly go to bed hungry. One meal a day is a blessing to them. 

The most affected in these households are the sick and children under 5 years. With poor nutrition comes stunted growth and they are prone to many diseases. 

KSNF sets up small businesses for these very poor pregnant women and mothers in Meru county according to their preferences in their respective villages. The foundation manages these businesses for a lifetime so as to ensure they always generate income for these women by running efficiently. 

80% of the monthly profit made from these businesses belongs to the women while 20% is retained by the foundation to cater for its bills and help other women in future.

KSNF hopes to come up with a portal that will make managing these businesses easy since they are located in different villages of the county, some very remote. 

The women and staff members will enter their personal details and each will have their pages. The women will enter their businesses details such as businesses names, locations, purposes, registration and licenses. They will also be recording daily incoming stocks and sales on the portal.

Through the portal the women will be connected to potential customers locally and internationally, to investors and mentors. This will help the businesses grow.

Nutritional tips and daily meal plans will be sent to the women in their own languages through the portal to encourage healthy living.

KSNF focuses on the very poor abandoned pregnant women, mothers and their children in Meru county. These are the women who live under $2 a day and have no one to depend on financially.

These are the women who can hardly afford one nutritious meal in a day and most of them, especially the children who are 5 years and below suffer undernourishment. 

The foundation sets up small businesses for these women and manages the businesses. These women participate by operating these businesses and coming up with new developmental ideas. They are the biggest beneficiaries from the businesses.

Through their income these women comfortably afford basic needs especially 3 nutritious meals daily for them and their children.

These women are directly involved in community development through these businesses because as the businesses grow comes employment opportunities.

KSNF foundation sets up small businesses for the needy women. This means that the foundation provides capital required to start these businesses. 

We focus on the needy single mothers who the society ignores since they are viewed as strong people who should be able to support themselves financially.

Through Kesho portal we link these women to potential customers and investors locally and internationally. This makes the businesses grow. As these businesses grow the employment opportunities increase.I

KSNF has competitors like CARE who operate in different towns in Kenya excluding Meru. They empower women economically and improve their nutrition status. CARE empowers women by loaning them.

We empower women by setting up small businesses for women but managing these businesses for a life time. These businesses belong to the foundation but the women operate them.

On top of that we do our managerial operations via a portal.

KSNF will use a portal, which is an existing technology, for its activities. The portal will be known as Keshoportal. Management of the businesses set up for the women will be done via the portal.   

Personal details of the needy women and staff members will be entered in the portal and all the businesses details such as registration, licensing, names, locations and area of interest will be entered in the portal.

Why is the portal important? 

The businesses the foundation sets up for the women are located in different villages in Meru county. The foundation's staff members cannot be visiting these businesses, which will be growing in numbers as weeks go by, daily to check their progress and success. It will be expensive and time consuming.The portal will make management of the businesses easy. 

These women will be recording their daily stock intake and sales on their portal sites. They will also send their daily sales to the foundation's M-pesa accounts which will serve as a temporary savings account. 

They will get their share of the profit at the end of the month but 20% of their income will be sent to their bank accounts linked to their sites.

Through the portal we will link the women to local and international customers and investors to help in the growth of the businesses.

Through the portal we will be sending nutrition tips to help the women and their children improve their health and build strong immunity through the food they take.

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Activities: KSNF sets up small businesses for the very poor single mothers in Meru county who have no one to depend on financially. We plan on managing the businesses via Keshoportal linking them to local and international customers and investors and guiding these women on healthy living through meal plans and nutritional tips send to them daily.

Output: Through the portal there will be growth in the businesses which will generate income. Through the portal the women will be able to save for the future because 20% will automatically be deducted from their incomes and transferred to their bank accounts. The women and their children will gain nutrition knowledge. They will gain knowledge on healthy eating and living to prevent sicknesses and become more productive and through their incomes they will be able to afford 3 healthy meals a day.

Short-term outcomes: These needy women will be able to afford basic needs such as 3 meals a day, conducive houses, clothes and medical services form their incomes. 

Long-term outcomes: The health conditions of these women and their children, especially those under 5 years and the ones suffering low immunity will improve because these women can afford nutritious meals which boost body weight and immunity and locally affordable medical services. The rate of malnutrition morbidity and mortality in Meru county will reduce.

The rate of employment will increase as the businesses grow due to and increase of customers worldwide and the effort of investors.

KSNF is currently serving 9 people.

In one year the foundation is expected to serve 2000 people.

In five years the foundation is expected to serve 20000 people.

Goals within the next year: We plan to set up small businesses for 500 needy women. We are currently doing a M-Changa fund raise, through social media pages, for capital to start up businesses for the needy women. By connecting these businesses to investors and customers we hope for their growth. When the businesses grow there will be employment. Our goal by the end of 1 year is one employment per business. 

Our goal is that 500 households led by these needy women will be able to afford 3 nutritious meals in a day and they will be resistant to most diseases.

Goals within the next five years: We are working toward a county where 10000 poor single mothers who live under $2 a day will make at least $5 a day through running successful businesses. We are working towards zero hunger among these women and their children whereby they will not be undernourished and frequently get sick due to low immunity. We are working towards 5 employment opportunities per business.

The biggest barrier is finance.

The other barrier will be lack technical know how to create and operate a portal.

Financial: We are always doing fund raises to support our foundation's activities. We are trying to involve our local politicians, business people and philanthropic groups to partner and support us financially.

Recently, we started offering cleaning and farming services in the county where this women participated as a ways of generating income.

Technical: We are seeking information technologists or computer scientists to volunteer in the foundation and help with portal creation and operation. We also look forward to getting help from local companies or institutes that use portals for their operations.

KSNF has 1 full time staff, that is the founder.

The foundation has 5 volunteers.

- The founder, Emily Wawira, is a single mother of 2 who has been through poverty. She secured a job in a local pharmacy and used her salary to start Kesho Siku Njema foundation to help poor single mothers overcome the poverty.

She is a nutritionist and a pharmaceutical technologist with 7 years cumulative working experience hence her urge to improve the health of these needy women and their children.

-Betty Wanja is a civil engineer and has been managing projects in her 2 years of working at Kenya Rural Roads Authority. Earlier this year she volunteered to be managing the foundation's projects for them to be successful.

- Caroline Nkirote is a single mother and a business lady with 4 years working experience. She helps with business ideas.

Kesho Siku Njema foundation is currently not partnering with any organisation.

KSNF creates small businesses for the very poor abandoned mothers by identifying their talents or the businesses they are good in.

These women can hardly afford basic needs. They live under $2 to$1 a day. They cannot afford 3 decent meals a day and they and their children are mostly undernourished and prone to many diseases.

KSNF will fund raising on social media, apply for grants, offer cleaning and farming services in Meru, and do fairs where we will sale products and services to finance the foundation's projects.

KSNF is applying to solve to get funds to be able to run its projects. Through the $10000 grant we will be able to create a portal, start operating it and set up small businesses for at least 200 women.

We are also applying for technical assistance to create and successfully operate Keshoportal from solve technical experts.

My staff and I will also use entrepreneurship training and mentoring to scale more entrepreneurial heights.

Kesho Siku Njema foundation will use financial assistance because since its start we depend on the founder's salary to set up businesses for the women and run other projects. We recently started an online fund raising which isn't doing so well.

We will also need help with creating a portal that will sustain us for a life time and also equip us with knowledge to operate the portal successfully.

As the founder, I am having a hard time recruiting talents. Competent professionals don't want to volunteer to the foundation.

Getting mentors, partners and investors is quite difficult because they do not really trust our work as we are a new foundation.

We will really use some exposure so that people can support our work and also partner with us. With more support and partnership we reach more and more needy women.

- UNICEF- KSNF would like to partner with UNICEF to end poverty related Moderate malnutrition or Severe malnutrition among children who are 5 years and below.

- African Women's Development Fund (AWDF) - along side funding women entrepreneurs' organizations, AWDF strengthens the entrepreneurs abilities to perform better.

KSNF uses Keshoportal to help these women's businesses grow by connecting them to customers and investors.

Through the growth of these businesses, the women can be able to afford basic needs and pay their bills without having to beg for money.

Their health and that of their children improves because they afford nutritious meals daily.

These women who had no say in the community will play a big role in creating job opportunities and improve the society's economic status.