Kenya – In March, 2015 GPA was able to award Fortune Community Center a $5000 grant to develop a hair dressing and dressmaking entrepreneurship program for vulnerable young men and women in the Embakasi District of Nairobi, Kenya. To date, Fortune trained and mentored 28 participants. Two trainees raced through their training and within 6 months opened their own beauty shops! Five dressmaking trainees have learned to make school uniforms which they donated to local orphans.
Meet Judith and Violet!
“I am Judith I am a very proud woman today, I have had challenges in my life in the past but I thank for Fortune for giving me a second chance in life the this project, I joined tailoring training course in the 2012 and only did it for 2 months, the person who was supporting me withdrawn the support ,for the last three years I been doing all kinds of work to earn a living to help support me and my two children, early this year I heard of an organization recruiting young women for training on dressmaking and hair dressing ,the selection was not easy because there were so many people who were interested in the few chances that were available but I thank God I was one of the lucky ones. I only took four months to master the work, I think it was because of the interest I had ,after training I worked at the site for at the place I trained for month, I then borrowed some money from a group where I was a member, Fortune Community also linked me with a USA based lending organization and one tailoring machine. I am currently running my dressmaking business but still getting help from my trainers, there are also some trainees who are learning from me and also being supported by my trainers. I am very happy with the opportunity I got and would be happy to see many women like get such support, I will do my part to give back to the community by training other vulnerable young and women since that is the only way I can appreciate what was done to me, I will be happy when I get more machines and materials”

58 young women and 4 men have acquired portable skills on hair dressing, beauty, tailoring and dress making. 20 % of them are already running their own small businesses while other 5% have been employed in the first month of completed their training. The rest are also still attached to their training sites and are getting daily/weekly allowances to mean all our beneficiaries are not the same way they were before joining the project. They are currently in a position to put food on the table, support education and feeding of their children under their care many of which are orphans. Those who went through the project are currently supporting orphans by making school uniform. Household income has increased.