Ziriya Kagoya

Ziriya struggled to make ends meet by carrying out peasantry farming in her village

Ziriya struggled to make ends meet by carrying out peasantry farming in her village. But her income was not enough to feed the nine children and pay school fees. To supplement on the family’s income, her oldest son had to drop out of school to work as a casual laborer on people’s farms.

“I very seldom bought meat for my children,” Ziriya recalls. “I could not afford books for my children. Younger children used books with remaining blank pages passed on by their elder siblings.”

Then Ziriya received a microloan and business training from Sustain Micro Enterprise that enabled her to start a brick making business. She says that “the loan has transformed my life and that of her family.

Today, the family lives in a better shelter and Ziriya’s heart is filled with hope and a better future: “Besides having enough food, most of my children can go to school.” says Ziriya.