Imarika Kijana (Thriving Rural Youth) Program
One of four interlinked programs across the key problem areas of health, education, sexual violence, gender equality and economic stability, livelihood training is delivered to rural students and girls, and targets the urgent need to support young people to develop new business ideas and improve livelihoods when they leave school.
This is specifically important in the rural areas where Lyra is active, as over 80% of the community members are subsistence farmers. To-date we have trained 175 young adolescents in 2019 and we will treble this number in 2020.
Introducing Ngojea Mgata, budding entrepreneur and basket maker
Ngojea is a 25 year old single mother to two boys aged 8 and 2. Her mother died when she was 7 years old, and her father moved away and remarried. She became a housemaid looking for work, but returned after the birth of her two sons to live with her grandmother.
In 2016, Ngojea decided to start life afresh, taking up small scale farming and hair braiding to earn a bit of income to support her children and her grandmother. When the Lyra entrepreneurship training arrived in her village, Ngojea was keen to take part.
Lyra invited Catherine of Vikapu Bomba (a successful local entrepreneur who makes and sells woven reed baskets) to speak to the girls about the opportunities in basket weaving. This was particularly relevant to Ngojea and her group, as they already had the right skills, and access to local materials needed for basket weaving.
Now, Ngojea is earning an additional income making and selling baskets, and she is also a Community Based Trainer, supporting others to improve academic performance in both primary and secondary schools locally. She is also a youth chairperson for her church.
Together with 29 other people, she has also joined a Lyra savings and loan group, and in the first six weeks of the program, Ngojea had saved USD 16 and doubled her weekly income with her basket weaving.
“In our community, basket weaving is for home use. Little did we know that this can be an important income generating activity. The opportunity to meet Catherine, the founder of Vikapu Bomba, was an eye opener to all of us. I have already starting weaving better, continually improving my skills. I aim to be the lead trainer in good quality baskets in our community”. Ngojea
Lyra is now supporting Ngojea and twelve other youth from the same community to weave baskets with a view to export. We’ll check in again with her soon, and see how her career is progressing.