SUCCESS STORIES

 

LAVENDER ACHIENG

Background

Lavender is a 24 year old mother of 2 who was born, raised and married in Kibra, Gatwekera village within Sarang’ombe ward.  She says that she got the passion for tailoring from her experience when helping her mother since her childhood.

Challenge

Lavender had just been affected by the toi market fire break out at the time OCF was meeting her. She had lost all her fabrics, uniforms and machines to the fire. Since she was so determined to bring back her business to life, she would open her stall but borrow a sewing machine from her neighbor who would also give it to her at her convenient time. This would make her be at logger heads with her clients who most of the time their services were delayed. At this point, she had also received a tender from SHOFCO to make uniforms for the school but was in distress since this was a huge task and it would be even more difficult to carry it on without a sewing machine of her own.

OCF Key Results

After going through the selection criteria, pitching of business idea, business plan and budget, OCF supported Lavender with a butterfly sewing machine at her very point of need. She was now able to serve her customers conveniently and also deliver the SHOFCO uniforms within the time frame that she had been allocated. During OCF deployment ceremony, Lavender said that the same way OCF had been a blessing is the same way she was going to be a blessing to a children’s home, that she would make uniforms and donate to a children’s home of her choice. She is currently working on the fabrics and OCF will be excited to be present and witness during her donation in January 2024.

Conclusion

Lavender says that her daily profits have increased from 300 to 500 shillings or 800 shillings on fair days and that she is looking forward to her business growth now that she is not hindered in anyway in her daily activities at the business. Lavender is very grateful to OCF and says “To whom much is given, much more is expected”