African Woman and Child Feature Service

The women talk animatedly as they narrate the benefits they have enjoyed as beneficiaries of the Women Funds, an intervention that has enriched their lives in more ways than one.

Bur Abor Bidii Women Group in Mandera East, North Eastern province has, through the support of the Women Fund managed to diversify their source of livelihood.

Mandera being a largely livestock dependant community with persistent bouts of droughts, over-reliance on livestock may prove to be a retrogressive economic move in a region that is still very much struggling to withstand its infamous dry spells.

Mandera, which used to be one constituency until recently now is demarcated into Mandera East, Central and West all with an estimated 312,000 population, would heavily benefit from these kind of interventions.

“For Bur Abor therefore, being empowered to pursue development ventures such as farming, setting up small business enterprises such as shops and hotels has being a major milestone,” says Mohammed Abdulla, a resident.

“Previously, the women would just sit around, chatting and generally idling but things have now changed, the women have even begun being proactive with regard to education, they want their children to get an education because they have tasted the benefits.”

The group constitutes 22 women and though all but one are illiterate that has not hindered their ability to think big.

Bur Abor Bidii Women Group is one of the only 23 groups in Mandera to have benefited from the Women Fund.

In Mandera Central and West only one group each has benefited, the other 21 groups are all from Mandera East.

According to a social development officer attached to the Department of Gender and Social Services in Mandera who requested anonymity to avoid having the groups he represents victimized, “It is not because women in Mandera East have had more outstanding and or ingenious ideas, the bureaucracy towards receiving the money is too frustrating,”

“There are 14 groups whose papers were presented last year, but since they didn’t have bank accounts, their applications were rejected, we corrected the anomalies but even though the same groups have been presented this year, we have so far received no word.”

In addition, the officer wonders why women in Mandera have had to meet the same conditions met by women in more privileged areas, and his sentiments are echoed by one of the women whose groups has been waiting since last year, she also requested anonymity for the same reason,

“We are among 14 groups on the waiting list, the issue of the bank account has been  an issue but we have a major problem accessing banks in Mandera, we have only had one bank in Mandera, the other one was opened this year,”

“In addition, apart from women in Mandera East who are closer to Mandera town where both banks are, the rest of us have to travel at least 200Km to access a bank, why can’t the Women Fund stakeholders look into our plight.”

Among the groups interviewed regarding the delay in receiving the funds, they expressed frustration because they feel that their predicaments and the fact that they are in very hardship areas have clearly not been factored in.

Some of the conditions for receiving the funds apart from having a bank account include being in a well organized and registered group of at least 10 women, having a viable project and proposal and filling in a form issued which for many women is a problem because very few are literate.

The women claim to have been subjected to the same conditions as other more privileged groups in other parts of the country whose access to Nairobi is much easier and who are also literate.

They are therefore calling for a contextualization of the Women Fund.

Although there is a sense of frustration by many groups in Mandera regarding their access to Women Fund, the Minister for Gender and Children Affairs on the other hand is expressing dissatisfaction with women because they are not coming forward to ask for the fund,

“The money is available but women are still not coming for the loan, we are making efforts to demystify how the whole concept works and even bringing in an aspect of training but the numbers are still low,

“We have a number of success groups though such as the one in Rachuonyo-Nyanza Province, the women repaid their loan in 3 months, instead of the 12 months repayment period. These are some of the success stories we want to hear but will not until women come for the fund.”

The Women Fund launched in 2007 is an initiative by the government to address poverty by supporting women to have economic muscle.

It is a flagship project within the social pillars towards achieving the Vision 2030 “70,000 women entrepreneurs in self-help groups have so far benefitted,” explains Samuel Wainaina, Director of the Women Enterprise Fund.

“We want the numbers to rise but there are many challenges, for instance the low level financial literacy, a low awareness of the Women Fund, the financial market has also introduced other seemingly simplified ways of borrowing money among other thing.”

Regardless of the issues around the women fund, it is without a doubt a powerful tool towards economically empowering women.

However, the Women Fund would go along way towards meeting this objective if certain regional issues were factored so as women in hardship areas do not feel marginalized.

For now though, women in Mandera have no option but to work within the already set requirements.