Elizabeth with her cooler of cooked beans
The story of Elizabeth Nnamani, a 40-year old woman from Mgbakwu community enrolled into USAID-funded LOPIN-2 project in Anambra state is a unique story of courage in despair. Married with six children, Elizabeth and her family lived in difficulty, she had no money to pay her children education so they were out of school and feeding was a challenge. USAID-funded LOPIN-2 project intervened and supported Elizabeth business and today her children are going to school.
As part of its FY16 work plan, WEWE has enrolled a total of 4,607 VC (2330 males and 2277 females) in 1,509 households Anambra State and provide health services, psycho-social support, nutrition and food security, and household economic strengthening among other services. Elizabeth household is one of them.
Elizabeth and her family lived happily until her husband fell from an ogbono (African bush mango) tree in 2011, broke his back and has been incapacitated since then. The family sold every property they had for medical treatment all to no avail. With nothing to survive on, Elizabeth started frying akara (bean cake) and plantain alongside pap for sales to support her family. She bought the beans and corn on credit to pay after each day’s sales. However, this was far from providing basic needs of the family because the business was not stable, there were times her creditors refused to supply her corn.
Through USAID-funded LOPIN-2, Elizabeth was supported with 25kg bag of maize to grow her business and trained in financial management and business skills. Elizabeth is also a member of, and secretary to the Village Savings and Loan Associations in Mgbakwu community set up by USAID-funded LOPIN-2 project. The financial management skills she was taught helped her to save ₦500 (USD1.61) naira every day from her daily sales and within six months of receiving support, Elizabeth has diversified her business; she is now selling cooked beans, rice and pap (a custard level meal made out of corn consumed by children and adult). She makes a profit of ₦48,000 (forty eight thousand naira), approximately USD154.84 monthly.
Elizabeth is thankful that she is able to diversify her business, pay for her children school fees and she is saving to get a house for her family. She says; “Thank you USAID, your support came when other people did not want to help me”.
