My name is Symon Sange and I was born in Voi which is a town between Nairobi and Mombasa. Voi is an area where residents practise farming and keeping cattle. I was born in a family of seven and I am the first born. As the first born, I had a huge responsibility of taking care of my younger siblings and this made me acquire a culture of hard work early in life. My parents are of what would be described as poor since their income is very low.
In spite of the hardship, and with lots of sacrifices, my parents took me to school up to secondary school with the hope that I would get a good job and support them in their effort to bring up the large family. Unfortunately, it was hard to get a job without any vocational training. My father sold his prized bull to raise money for me to go to Mombasa and find something to do so as to start earning.
Armed with the money from my dad, I came to Mombasa for the first time and got a job as a waiter in a small restaurant. I worked there for four months and then decided to quit to start my own business. I decided to venture into juice extraction business where I bought a few equipment to get me started. A friend of mine agreed to share his premises with me since I could not afford a place of my own.
I deal with extraction of juices from many seasonal fruits that grow around this region. The most popular fruit juices are mango, orange, avocado and a cocktail of all that. I get the fruits from the market or from farmers and then process them using basic equipment into sweet juice which I sell in re-usable glasses. I have a small freezer for cooling the juice due to high tropical temperatures around here.
The business has grown over the years in spite of many hurdles and I make a profit of about $300 which is quite okay. This is the money that I use to support my family and to send back home to my extended family.
My greatest and immediate problem right now is lack of my own place. I share (as seen on the profile photo) with my friend and he is in a totally different field where he does TV and radio repair. My desire is to have my own premises where I can prepare the juice in a hygienic environment. This is a dream I have harbored for many years but there are many competing needs for the money that I make.
The purpose of taking this loan is to enable me acquire a freezer for my business. I am currently using an old one which is not very effective in cooling leading to losses in when the fresh juice goes bad especially in hot seasons. The cost of maintenance is also very high and the best thing is to get a new one.
A good freezer for my business will cost me around $600 and this will guarantee me a good service hence increase my business volume. I also hope to save money that would go to maintaining the old machine and channel the same to other uses.