My story begins in small village called Nyakach where I grew up. I was raised in a family of five – 3 females and two males where I am the last born. Nyakach is a typical rural Kenya with no amenities worth talking about. I went to primary and later secondary school and I always knew that if given the chance to break free, I would most certainly jump at that opportunity.

This opportunity came after finishing my secondary education when I went to live with my sister in Mombasa – 800 kilometers from home. My life took a drastic change in Mombasa city where I was exposed to the comforts of urban life like tap water and electricity for the first time.

My sister was kind enough to sponsor me to a computer college where I did a short course in computer applications. I later got a job as a computer operator after finishing the course. While still working, I enrolled for a Diploma course in Business Management on part-time basis.

I secured another job after completing my Diploma course where I was employed as a Personal Assistant in a printing firm. I also started a cyber café after quitting the first job and I am still running this place with the help of one employee.

I am also hoping to do a Degree course in near future, time and finances allowing.

I run a small cyber café in Mombasa town where I deal with bureau services as well as offering cyber services like browsing and sending emails. Mombasa is big city with a large population and the demand for cyber services is quite high. I saw this opportunity while doing my first job and the business has been doing well.

Apart from cyber services, I also offer photocopying and typing services. All these activities combined give me a gross income of about $500 per month and the expenses gobble about half of that. I use the ‘take home’ amount for my upkeep and send some to my aging my parents back home.

This figure can easily go up if I introduce more services like lamination and book binding. For this reason, I decided to seek credit services hence the reason for joining Zidisha.

I will use this loan to do two things:

1. I will use USD 600 to pay for my college education. I am now doing the last module of my course and I will spend the money to cater for tuition fees, learning materials and examination fees.

2. I will use the balance to buy furniture like chairs and a table to use in my business.

Both projects are very important to me because they are geared to creating a bright future. I am optimistic that funding of this loan will bring me much closer to my dreams of attaining good education and expanding my business.