Damaris is a young, energetic woman who reached out to Mama Afrika in 2023 for support in setting up a second-hand shoe shop. Her situation is challenging: As a single mother, she is unable to care for her son herself—he is growing up hundreds of kilometers away with his grandmother. At the same time, she bears responsibility for her unemployed siblings.

To test her determination, Damaris initially received €20 in start-up capital for her first purchase of shoes. She demonstrated commitment and perseverance—not only in this initial challenge but also during a subsequent internship. Then, a new opportunity arose: Through collaboration with the Kenyan NPO Swahili Pot Hub, she was able to start training as a sewing machine operator. With great enthusiasm, she seized this new chance and is now working towards building a stable future for herself.

Josephine has been standing on her own two feet since 2015, after training as a seamstress by Mama Africa many years ago. Until the onset of the corona pandemic, she didn’t need any support and was even able to send her son to high school in Nairobi. But then everything changed: suddenly the tourists stayed away and Josephine fought for the survival of her business. She kept herself afloat by sewing uniforms for judges or table linen for the surrounding hotels. With a small loan from Mama Afrika she could afford an overlock sewing machine. Thus we were able to quickly help her and so Josephine could now not only take on more specific orders, but also rent out her overlock machine to other seamstresses for a fee to generate a small additional income.

Christine simply approached us during our support trip to Kenya in March 2023 and, unlike many others, didn’t just ask for money. No, she already had a specific plan: She keeps working as a masseuse and additionally wants to complete an official diploma as masseuse and hairdresser which would allow her to work in hotels. No sooner said than done: Christine started her part-time training at the beginning of April and is doing it with great energy and enthusiasm. Updates on this will follow!

Emmanuel, the founder of the Gbekebii School of Art and Culture in Jamestown/Ghana, has only one goal in mind: to show children from the fishing slum a way out of poverty by providing them with free education. In order to convince parents to send their children to school regularly, all 150 children receive a hot meal every day — often the only meal of the day.

Emmanuel is always struggling with new challenges: Currently, it is not only the rapidly rising inflation, but also a conflict between the owners of the property, which is why he has to fear for his school building.
He urgently needs help to be able to continue to provide schooling for the children.

Eli doesn’t let life get her down. Whether it is malaria again and again, a serious accident or the total failure of her farm, she always finds new ideas to be able to provide for her livelihood.

She currently runs an online web shop for her own honey and is involved in her home community to get the farmers to rethink so that they work more with each other instead of against each other. Eli would like to start a permaculture training to be able to go even further in the direction of sustainability.

George comes from Kisumu near Lake Victoria in Kenya. Despite graduating from high school, it was hard for him to find a job. In 2018, he started selling second-hand clothes on mobile stalls around Mombasa. Despite the energetic support of some market women, the business doesn’t really want to take off. In 2021, he decides to become a farmer. He runs two rented farms, but the country-wide drought causes one of the two farms to wither. To be better equipped in the future, Mama Africa finances an organic farming training course for him, which he completes with absolute enthusiasm. He is so convinced of organic farming that he immediately starts training local farmers in it. Now he wants to return to his home community of Kisumu to buy his own farm.

Riziki is a power woman and until now was considered indestructible. However, after being abandoned by both her husband and her brother, she has been struggling with health problems for some time, which have been exacerbated by the effects of the Corona pandemic. With the loss of tourism, her fruit juice, ice cream and fish businesses completely collapsed.

Her scooter taxi business is also going through a difficult period. For Riziki, however, this is no reason to give up. When things don’t work out with the old businesses, she finds another idea to continue to provide for her three children and send them to school. During the pandemic, she started to run a small farm with fruit and vegetables. But then the back pain started and increased so much that she could neither work nor sleep, until now she cannot move at all …

Julieta toils every day at her market stall in a suburb of Mombasa. Every day she sells her vegetables. Julieta is a market woman with heart and soul. But she has been through a valley of tears. Three years ago, her husband left her. From one day to the next, she was left empty-handed, not knowing how to pay the school fees for her son and the food for the two of them.

She had to use the income from the market stall for daily living, and that was the beginning of the problem. After a few weeks, there was no money left to buy new goods. Julieta had to leave the market. At the beginning of 2020, Mama Africa financed a new start for her, trained her and donated a grant for her school fees. Today, she is back at full strength at her market stall and wants to expand it. To do so, she needs another loan.