Upon our arrival at Mrs Zan Rashid Zan’s homestead, we meet with several women with water jerricans on their heads, a sign that her homestead is a fount of the basic commodity that the community depends on.
Mrs Zan Rashid Zan is a renowned water vendor in Matuga sub-county, Kwale County. She has been in the water business for the past 10 years quenching the thirst of her community.
Despite being in the business for 10 years, she has not been able to serve the community fully since she did not have a proper water reservoir to reserve enough water for the community. However, things took a new turn when she learned about the existence of the Jasiri Fund.
“I learned about Jasiri Fund through a friend who informed me that there is an organization called Collaborative Centre for Gender Development (CCGD) which was equipping women survivors of SGBV with entrepreneurship skills and linking them with loans from Kenya Women Finance Trust Bank,” said Zan Rashid.
Later, she was enrolled as a beneficiary of the fund where she took a loan of Ksh.150, 000 which she used part of the money in purchasing a 5000 litres water tank which is acting as a water reservoir.
“I got Ksh.150,000 as a loan from Jasiri Fund and used part of the money to purchase a new water tank to replace the old tank. I also used the money to buy more cattle,” she said.
She says the water business is profitable since she can make up to Ksh.3,000 within a week, where a 10-litre jerrican goes for 5/= while a 20-litre jerrican goes for Ksh. 10/= thus enabling her to service the loan and fend for her family.
For Zan Rashid, her main dream is to have a borehole where she can have a constant flow of water as opposed to having the tap one which she says often breaks thereby affecting her business.
Apart from the constant breakdown of tap water, her business also faces competition from other water vendors within Matuga, whom she says has a borehole and freshwater as opposed to her water which is not as fresh as her competitors.
Mrs Rashid has also ventured into livestock rearing and hopes to expand when she gets her next loan. She attributes the new venture to the frequent entrepreneurship training by CCGD that has helped her learn more about financial management and record keeping.
“I am a beneficiary of Jasiri training before I used to run the business and I couldn’t manage my financial records perfectly. But after attending several pieces of training, I can now manage my finances well – I know the amount to spend, pay water bills and service my loan,” she explained.
Her call to CCGD is to make Jasiri Fund reliable and affordable to several women in Kwale County.
With support from Mastercard Foundation, through the Response, Recovery and Resilience Project in partnership with CREAW and GROOTS Kenya, CCGD has facilitated affordable financial services to women such as Mrs Zan Rashid Zan through Jasiri Fund. CCGD is currently implementing the program in Kwale, Kajiado and Busia Counties. As of December 2022, 278 women and youth (young women) and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) with existing businesses had received loans worth Ksh. 15, 115, 875.
By Maurice Goga
