My name is Caroline Kizito ,a second born in a family of five from Kenya Siaya county.Iam 35yrs old with living and working in Kisumu city as a widow and a single mother of two.

Having survived as a total orphan after my secondary school, I financed my college education by selling fish and I attained Diploma in Information technology and secured a job in the city. For a long time I had to take care of my siblings and I had to work and continue with the same business.

I had to pay rent for them, my school fees, food and others. I remember sometimes I could not even raise money for my fare to town or lunch but I sacrificed until them and I had reached somewhere to start life.

I thereafter changed my business to selling second hand clothes to cater for extra needs I have right now since the fish business was too cumbersome and needed a lot of time which I could not combine with work. I have actually raised money from my salary to start this business after my employment.

In my community girls are not recognizes to be assisted to go to school and things became worse when I became a widow in 2014.Widows in luo land are supposed to be inherited and continue giving birth at their own cost. This has made me remain a widow and a single mother to protect myself and my children from the crazy community culture and also protect my children from any person taking advantage of me and my children since my first born daughter is now a teenage ,a candidate to be precise.

Because of this I must confine myself to the city and not at my husband’s village since the community cannot stand us neither can we agree to their culture.

This calls for a die-hard kind of life to make things work for me and hence work and do business to make ends meet.

My daughter who is a candidate in class eight right now would want to be a lawyer and my wish is to support her all through to achieve this. She is enrolled in a private school and I have bills to pay and considering the Kenyan economy salary is never enough for a single mother.

My commitment right now is to make my children successful to maintain the legacy of my husband hence work and business.

Having been employed as an administrative assistant, I realized that that salary is not enough and I decided to start selling second hand clothes which is a popular business in Kisumu where I stay. Second hand clothes are always n demand compared to other clothes being sold around but the challenge being that those who are interested are very busy to tussle themselves to select the clothes in the market therefore they prefer someone doing the delivery for them. I target people from other offices and even in church, am also privileged because I don’t need to employee anyone to sell for me since I do so at my free time and during weekends and holidays when am off duty hence no manpower to eat on my profit .

The clothes are affordable and negotiable and any amount can purchase them, A reasonable and presentable for my clients would cost me ksh.200 which can attract a revenue ksh.100.

With this revenue I am able to subsidize my salary to pay my bills, save for my children education and any other floating expenses that my salary cannot settle.

As a single mother I have been able to maintain to children in the private school and I am sure that their interest is taken care of.

Although I buy from the region where I stay-kisumu,I would like to do my purchases from Nairobi where costs are lower with variety so that I can increase my revenue. For me to achieve this I need to sell more and save even more so that I can purchase from Nairobi since it will attract some extra expenses compared to buying from the near market.

As a self motivated single mother any assistance to realize my dream will make me realize the dream of my children and there is nothing am committed to as such right now

My objective is to buy more clothes to sell thereby increasing my revenue which I will later on use to buy more stock from Nairobi than kisumu. Am saving bit by bit as I increase my capital from the same revenue and hoping to spend less when I will be buying from Nairobi with higher profit margin