Increasing motivation with increasing success

Ruth Gathondu is microentrepreneur and lives with her husband and her daughter in the region of Ndeiya, central Kenya. Ruth and her husband run a small farm in addition to a boutique in the local shopping centre. She built her business on the basis of the entrepreneurship training, which she already completed in 2008 in the course of a project by ICEP and Kianda. After Ruths daughter started to help out in the shop after finishing high school, Ruth could turn to new tasks. The success motivated Ruth to start a new project, for which she received support at the Kimlea Business Centre – in the form of entrepreneurship support.

Since tea is one of the most popular beverages in Kenya, and there were plenty of tea plantations around, Ruth decided to sell tea. Soon Ruth started to sell tea to wholesale companies – like hotels. ,,Due to the advice I received in the training I could increase the returns from our business to 40.000 Ksh (400 EUR, March 2015) and the best thing is: ,,My daughter can now attend a college, where she is taking business classes. This is something I could have never ever dreamt of” , says Ruth. By now, Ruth and 8 other women have built up a catering business and bought a small water tank and a power connection for her home. She wants to share her success with other women. She is planning to offer entrepreneur – support for 50 women in Nakuru, which is 150 km away from her home. Ruth aims to show these women how to build up their own microenterprises. She emphasises her mission by saying: ,,It makes me sad to see that many people are poor simply due to a lack of knowledge.”