Arit’s life changing testimony

Arit was lost in thought, she was weak, hungry and tired of walking down the streets hawking plantain from which her mother earned very slim margins. She had left home at 6.30am in the morning without breakfast and had only sold three hundred naira plantain despite her best efforts over the last several hours.

Tears welled up in her eyes each time she cast her mind back to how things were when her dad was still around. Everything was so much better until his demise. She was forced to stop school in SSS2 and help out in her mother’s petty business in order to support her mum and four younger siblings, so much effort for so little. Instead of carrying the tray on her head, she longed to be like the children in uniforms she saw going to school each morning. Why me, she asked herself repeatedly

Fortunately for Arit her story was about to change, that afternoon as she made her way wearily back to her house, she saw a group of people gathered in a nearby house and walked towards them to find out what was going on. Upon approaching them she heard a lady explaining to Mr Itam their neighbor that they were from an organisation that was running a program to help families in the neighborhood overcome poverty and ensure children are back to school.

Arit was excited and asked the lady if she would come to her house to see her mom. The lady responded in the affirmative stating that all houses in the street would be visited. She ran back home to tell her mom that there was a lady in Mr Itam’s house who said their organisation can help them go back to school and overcome poverty. Afi, Arits mother followed her back immediately, saying to herself, could this be true, if it was she wouldn’t miss this opportunity.

The lady came back with Afi to her home and asked endless questions, writing all the answers down on a form, she asked her if she would be committed to participate in the programme saying that the programme will entail her to undergo a financial literacy course after which she would be put in a savings cooperative where she and other members in her group will save an agreed amount of money from their monthly income. The lady also said, she will undergo a technical training where she will be taught how to cultivate high value garden crops and how to process some selected food stuff to yield additional income for her household.

After undergoing this trainings, she would be given a small tract of land and agricultural inputs for planting. She would be taught and supported to add value to her plantain business by processing it into plantain chips and plantain flour to increase her income. The lady said there would be weekly supervision to ensure Afi is on track and after two years of being in the programme, she will be graded and exited.

Afi responded, that she would be willing to participate. The lady came back two weeks later to say that Afi had been selected for the household strengthening program of the organisation and asked her to commit two hours a day consistently to partake in the program.

Arit and her siblings were assisted to school six weeks after her initial meeting with the organization. Everything else seemed to happen as the lady had said, Afi undertook the trainings, was given inputs and began to cultivate and sell high value vegetables and process plantain chips. She participated in her savings group, putting away 10% of all her earnings every week as agreed. The organization visited every week for inspection. Every three months they assisted Afi to increase the volume of the crops she was cultivating and the plantain chips she was selling. They helped to find new markets for her products.

Two years have passed since that fateful day, in the last few months Arit took and passed her SSCE, she also passed JAMB and has been admitted in UNICAL to study medicine.

All Afi’s four children are doing well at school, food, clothing, and transport is no longer a problem. In some months her income surpasses N200,000, she has N500,000 saved in the cooperative and can access a loan of N1.5m to expand her business.