Deborah is a 36 year old woman married to a 38 year old husband, a member of a Purpose Group. They had been blessed with 3 children of whom two are daughters and one son.
Before she partnered with Plant With Purpose she was a housewife who did labor work in the village.
“I was a housewife doing domestic activities and dependent on my husband to provide everything. I was using most of my time together with my children to go and fetch water because we had no water tap at our home. We lived in a small old house. It made me feel very bad . My children had to go and fetch water early in the morning before going to school and after they came from school. This made them arrive late to school and they did not have good grades. I knew I had to do something.
“In our village, we had no savings groups. The money I was getting from labor work went directly to food and other domestic needs. I did not know anything about saving, but as time went on it occurred to me–I needed to do something and overcome the challenges that I was facing.
I knew even though I’m a housewife I could work hard and make money to support my husband so we could take our children to school and construct a modern house for my family instead of our small old house.
I came across Plant With Purpose facilitators reaching out to our village about the importance of joining Purpose Groups. They explained to me how the group works and things that they do and the benefits that members get. It was a joyful surprise, like God had answered my prayers. I knew I was going to join the group and receive training which could help deliver income. I was very grateful to hear about it all.”
After joining the Purpose Group Deborah receive training on business management, environmental conservation and best agricultural practices that help her to establish a vegetable garden, where she planted different vegetables using compost manure. This helped her to have sweet and healthy vegetables and sold them to her neighbors. She has used her earnings to save in her group and buy family basic needs.
“After six months of being in the group I took a loan and connected a water tap at my house and overcome the challenge of going to other people’s houses to look for water, this was the greatest achievement that I always wanted to achieve in my life, I was very happy to see that I can get water anytime I wanted at my house and my children are now concentrating and attend to school early, no more troubles of fetching water. I was able to repay the loan in installments by selling vegetables from my garden.”
After repaying her first loan, she took a second loan and bought materials for building a modern house. She was able to repay the loan every month by selling vegetables and with the help of her husband who was a carpenter.
“I‘m happy to be amongst the Purpose Group members. The group has changed my life a lot. I decided to take a third loan so I could start building a house. I even started chicken projects and bought a goat from a small amount of the loan I took. I’m repaying the loan bit by bit.”
She explains that the Purpose Group has changed her life a lot even though she was a housewife but things are different now, she has been able to support her husband in taking care of the family, connecting a water tap, building a modern house, establishing a vegetable garden, she has got a lot of benefit from the group which she thought she could never have.
“My relationship with my neighbors is so good. I have encouraged many women to join Purpose Groups. I’m so grateful to God and thanks to Plant With Purpose Tanzania, my husband and my children are happy for the achievements we have made so far and for joining the group I’m planning to finish up the house and have a big organic vegetable garden so I can sell to the community.”
