Partnership Overview

This is a micro-enterprise fund for small scale loans that will provide employment and income for ministry in the future. More than 80 families are already benefiting from this fund.  The loans are mainly for medical emergencies, school fees, buildings for small business, furnishings or business boosts.

History Of Partnership

After their marriage, Robert and Rose Gitau (KEN03b) wanted to serve the Lord, and began by travelling to different villages preaching and bringing aid to the poor. Eventually they bought a small plot of land in Nguluni and launched a small church. The church began to grow and they started to not only help the community with spiritual needs but economically and physically as well.

Each year since 2003 BHW has visited Robert and Rose and seen their ongoing compassion and love for their community. They have started a school, a boarding home, built the school buildings, a preschool, put in a borehole for the community, started a clinic and built extra accommodation at their home for long term visitors who have nowhere to stay. 

They also lead a ministry called Fellowship of Believers. There are a number of churches and church planters involved in this. They have mentored many young people in education, ministry and church planting. As they became more involved in this they saw a real need to set-up a micro-enterprise fund to assist Christians in their community lift themselves out of deep poverty and attempt to become self-sufficient.  

Beneficiaries

Members of Fellowship of Believers (FOB) who are given a helping hand out of their poverty and assisted to support themselves. Fellowship of Believers is an evangelical denomination of around 90 churches in Kenya. The fund is available to members of FOB and other Christians who are willing to join the fund and go through the application process.

What We Like About The Partnership

A good process has been set up with good accountability. It is helping people to grow and develop and as it grows it will penetrate to many more people on the margins of society. This is already beginning to happen. There is a clear plan for development and this has the ability to become a very empowering programme.

Key People

Leadership Profile

Muthui Kisau is the director of the fund.  He is married to Hannah. They have two children and live in Kimathi, Nairobi. Muthui is the Pastor of Kimathi Chapel and Director of a number of schools run by the FOB churches. He trained in Zambia in the mid 1980's and has both passion and experience in assisting people.

Vision And Annual Strategy
The programme grows by word of mouth, this is the best way. The development strategy is to grow the fund around the current and new centres that Fellowship of Believers is developing. 

Currently the fund continues to need financial boosting from outside but they anticipate the fund eventually being self-sustaining and able to support its own administration. 

The fund also has the purpose (from it's profits) of assisting with the establishment of table loans. A number are being set up, slowly at first, but there is great potential in these. 

Personal Testimony

Real Life Change Stories

Kiringa is a teacher at Twin Birds Academy in Kamulu.  He lives in the Ruai community and is single.  He joined the Fund in February 2006 and saved K/=5,500 ($US80).  After 11 months he got a loan of K/=75,000 ($US1,100) and bought a piece of land.  He has fully repaid the loan and is saving around K/=500 ($US7 per month).  After paying back the first loan he then took out a second loan for K/=60,000 ($US850) to start a small business.  He buys sweets and other small wholesale items in Nairobi and sells them to the retailers in the area he lives which is about 30 kms outside Nairobi.  It has turned out to be quite a profitable little business.  He has paid back the second loan now and is planning to get another loan to boost the business to another level by increasing the amount of stock he can purchase and perhaps get further discounts because of larger orders.

The Fund has been a great help to Kiringa so that he hopes now to become self sufficient.  Before this he had no hope of improving his living standards as he had no security so was unable to go to a commercial bank for a loan.  He intends to continue saving with the scheme and using it as he needs to.  It has made it possible for him to learn many things as well by being involved in business, things he would never have learned without this opportunity.

Noah Otieno is an interesting guy, full of enthusiasm and hope.  He is 25 years old and lives and works in Njiru, a small town just outside Nairobi.  His dream is to have an electrical repair and sales shop in the centre of town one day but presently he has a mobile telephone accessories shop in Njiru.  He also fixes electrical appliances, TV's, CD players and anything else people bring in.  If he can't find a spare part he'll make one!  He learned how to do this sort of thing from a friend while he was a young boy.  He is good at business and employs one other guy to help him.  There is a lot of potential to develop the business.  To start his business he saved K/=5,000 ($US70) and bought the first accessories in 2007.

From the shop he is now able to support five siblings who are dependent on him.  They also support an orphan who has no one to help them. 

He has known Muthui Kisau for a long time and sometimes goes to the church he pastors.  Muthui helped him to save the money in the first instance to become part of the loan scheme.  He started saving and struggled to keep it up.  With Muthui's help he saved enough to become eligible for a loan and borrowed K/=10,000 ($US140).  With this he bought more stock for his shop.   This has increased his business and made him more efficient.  Once he has paid back this loan he expects to get another as he needs even more stock.  He struggles to make the repayments and to save money as well towards the next loan but he understands he has to work hard in these early days of starting a business.  He wants to build the business on the basis of good relationships and good service.  With Muthui's help he has also purchased a computer and does a lot of research into the problems and how to fix them on the web.  He has what it takes to be a successful businessman!