My names are John Kariuki, born in 1978 in a small town Known as Embu. while still young i went through the primary education and completed successfully in 1994 and later on i joined Kamama Boys High School for my O levels. At the end of a four years study i finished successfully whereby i attained a mean grade of B minus which was considered as very good results. i was unable to join university due to lack of finances since i hand already lost both of my parents. This lead me to take informal casual jobs whereby i started working in the church. This job involved carrying and connecting musical instruments for the church especially when the church was doing outdoor evangelism. In the church i was also trained to play and to service some musical instruments more so the piano and guitars. with the help of the church, i enrolled myself in the college whereby i took a course in electronics. Life in college was very difficult because of lack of money, therefore, to support myself i started joining the building and construction teams whenever i was free commonly known as "Mjengo." In the construction industry things were not easy either but diligently worked hard considering that there was no other available jobs, During this period i happen to have developed strong desire to own my own rental flats even though i had no money to invest in real estate. i earned small and saved small until when i managed to buy a piece of land whereby i have now started my own rental business. This is the business i really want to grow it to the next level. Here in our community every one works hard irrespective of their short comings in life and therefore i also cannot get any excuse of not working towards my goals.

I am currently committed to developing my rental housing business to the next level. My business started very humbly but i am one person who never despise the days of humble beginning. I started by purchasing one lorry of building stones and in the next month i would buy one lorry of sand. Buying one thing at a time was the only way for me to achieve my dreams. This has taken me twelve years precisely. And even in this twelve years, i have only managed to build four units of single room flats that i rent out at a cost of 34 dollars per month per every room. This totals to 134 dollars. I have a very strong passion to expand my project. i am convinced beyond doubts that this is the right business for me to do. This is only business in Kenya that never makes any loss. this is because there is a big shortage of houses. The rental houses are in very big demand in Kenya. This is partly due to urbanization and more so because most of the Kenyan manufacturing industries and factories are located within Town and urban areas. Therefore one can never go wrong in housing sector. This motivates me to even work harder. Further more, after building and renting, everything else is income and profits. This is the main reason i am happy to have known zidisha. Zidisha loans will help me do the painting of the already finished units and later on i will use zidisha loans to build more units. This is good for me because i am now able to solve a problem that is affecting so many people while at the same time edging closer to my vision of owning a business of Rental houses.

Dear lenders, this is how i will spend my next loan, 322 dollars will be used to clear the remaining balance in the Kenya Power and Lighting Company, while 68.2 dollars will be spent in completing the installation of wiring in the houses.

This is important because i will now be able to complete a process that i began of installing electricity in my houses. This will make my houses to be more habitable and even make my tenants more comfortable and therefore the tenants will have more confidence in the houses i am offering them.