Entrepreneur
Name
Antonina
Member since
September 2015
On-time repayments
44 installments • 95%
About Me
I am Antonina Aura, Kenyan Citizen with a high school diploma.
I also a have some working experience having worked in a bank for a short time as a subordinate staff, before being laid off. I then got married and I am a mother of 5, and grandmother of 3.
Unfortunately my husband died and left me with 5 children to raise, which has been a really upward task. I have had to run small businesses to make ends meet, provide education, shelter, food and clothing for my children. My children are now all grown up but securing good jobs in this country is hard , so most of them are just struggling.
I am the first born of 6 children from my mom, but 26 children from my Dad as he was a polygamist with 5 wives.
This situation presented me with a lot of challenges, when I was growing up as, we ended up with a missing father, though you could see him but he was just rarely in my mom`s house. This was mainly because my mother was the first wife which meant dad had 4 other younger wives to please.
To make matters worse my Mom had a hearing disability having gone deaf at age 12, as a result of a sever meningitis attack. But I was always encouraged seeing that she was able to bring 6 children into this world and to take care of them. And musing that she must have been something for my dad, who was quite a catch (he was a chief`s son), to have married her despite her disability.
The biggest challenge was getting fees from my dad to enable me and my siblings go to school. There were so many of us and every wife was fighting for her own children. My mother was not so well placed to fight effectively due to her disability and so this role fell to me as the oldest child. Getting school fees paid by my father was e very delicate balancing act but by the time I was ten, I had perfected it and so all my 4 brothers, my sister and myself were able to get a good education.
After retirement I relocated to my rural village where I have 4 acres of land that belonged to my late husband. Securing this land, also paused quite a challenge as I was expected to agree to be inherited by one of my brothers –in –law. When I did not agree to this tradition, the family of my late husband tried to take the land from me, and it has taken me over three years to secure it.
I am actually looked upon as a hero by my fellow widows, in the village, as so many of them lost their land to their brother –in –laws. This kind of prompted me to start a widow’s women group and now I try to counsel them and help them navigate the inheritance laws of this country so that they do not lose their land.
My Business
As I said I live in my rural village and a run 2 M-Pesa businesses at two local market centers. I combine this business with selling mobile phones and other related products.
The Mpesa business is helping my community as it is much nearer than the other shops and so people can access this important service more easily.
Because of my 4 acres of land I am able to grow surplus maize to sell to my community as most of them own less than one acre farms where they can only do substance farming. I am able to sell the maize to them at reasonable prices than if they go to the local markets.
I have also started to raise indigenous chickens and now have 47 chickens. I do farm and sale some cereals as well, and vegetables. The proceeds are used to expand the business and to look after my aging parents. my dad recently passed on and my mom is very old. The burden of looking after her has once more fallen on me.
The chicken business is promising but i need to expand it so that i can also produce eggs for sale.
Loan Proposal
1. will plough farm- kshs 8000
2. Buy seed- shs 4000
3. Buy DAP Feterlizer- 6000
4. Planting Expqnsesy-3000
Total. Shs 21000
Feedback
Positive
2
Neutral
None
Negative
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Loan Info
Project Type
Classic Loan
Disbursed amount
$178.00
Date disbursed
Feb 5, 2019
Repayment status
On Time
Projected term
2 months
Other loans
Lenders
United States
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David Oct 9, 2019
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