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Ensuring families can generate enough income to meet their basic needs is one of the key steps to empowerment. AfriKids’ support for family income generation takes many forms depending on the needs of the individuals and what makes most sense for them in their context. Sometimes support is given at the level of the family unit and is linked to a specific objective such as earning enough by the end of a project to fund a child’s educational needs. Sometimes we work with wider groups who are organised to work co‐operatively.
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For example, if AfriKids pays directly for a service the family will need to fund in the long term, such as school uniform or National Health Insurance Scheme membership, then it is given alongside a microfinance loan to invest in the family business or livestock for rearing if the family has appropriate farm land. By first consulting with the family on what kind of income generation support would help them, accompanying it with relevant training and following up with regular monitoring visits, AfriKids achieves extremely high repayment rates with families following through on commitments to using the extra income as intended. In 2008, with the introduction of Didas Azanoore, an expert on microfinance, to the Senior Management Team, as well as the replication of successful microfinance schemes between projects, family income generation has become a central plank of our work. Examples include Operation SINGh which, having achieved such good repayments with the 20 women it planned to help has been able to enter partnerships with local banks to extend the support to over 100 extra women. We also have ethical trade initiatives such as shea butter export made possible because AfriKids have been working through microfinance and business planning programmes with these women since 2005. Such initiatives are designed to empower communities to support themselves. £15,000 would enable us to continue supporting microfinance initiatives that empower the local people to fend for themselves