Buy material for making school uniform

Damaris

Muchatha, Kenya

100% repaid

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How it Works

Entrepreneur

Name

Damaris

Member since

August 2014

On-time repayments

284 installments • 91%

About Me

My name is Damaris Mumbi. I was born in a family of 8 where I am the 7th born. I am married with four children who are all in school. My parents (who are both deseased) were peasant farmers and they used their meager income to educate us. I went up to secondary school and later joined a tailoring college where I was taught stitching. With the help of my parents and later my husband, I managed to open a tailoring shop where I make all sorts of clothes - men, women and children's wear.

My husband used to work as a charcoal dealer where he would cut trees and make charcoal for sale. However, a disaster struck early this year when she fell from a tall tree and injured his backbone. He was in hospital for a long time and the doctor said that he cannot continue doing menial jobs due to the injury. Through extensive therapies, he is now back on his feet but jobless. This has exerted a lot of pressure on my business since I am now the sole bread winner in the family.

My plan is to expand my business and start selling second hand clothes in addition to what I do so as to supplement my income.

I am a hardworking and honest woman who truly believes that hard work and honesty pays.

My Business

I deal with tailoring where I make a wide variety of clothes. I normally buy a piece of cloth and make the items such as shirts, blouses, school uniforms etc. My monthly net income is about $120. This used to suit me well until when my husband became indisposed early this year.

I have decided to expand my business to start selling second hand clothes and this way, I will be able to double my income. I am well known in the area I work and getting people to buy these used clothes from me will be easy. I will source the clothes from Nairobi which is not far from where I work.

If my plan materializes through the credit from Zidisha, I will be able to continue providing for the family and take care of my husband, who now depends on me for his upkeep.

Loan Proposal

I am glad I have made contacts with some schools and they have agreed to refer their pupils to my tailoring shop to have their uniforms made there. While this is a big breakthrough, it has come with its challenges. The numbers have been growing by day and I have to make many trips to the material supplier to address the demand. I do not have enough muscle to buy in bulk which would be much cheaper (economy of scale) and time saving since I do not have to travel all the time.

For this reason, I have come back to you to help me once more. If loaned I will use the entire sum to buy assorted rolls of cloth material and this will go a long way me realizing this new found windfall.

Thank you and please be part of my success story.