A social enter­prise oper­a­tion received a pro­file in Kenya’s Daily Nation.

The busi­ness employs women who stitch together small hand bags that are now sold around the world. The money raised from sell­ing the bags have not only given the women a steady pay­check, but has also helped to start other projects that improve the lives of Kenyans.

Daily Nation writer Sam Kipla­gat pro­files RISE or Regional Insti­tute for Social EnterpRise.

The CDs mea­sure no more than four inches. The dec­o­rated bags are even­tu­ally shipped to mar­kets in Europe, the United States and Japan. The discs fetch just about Sh30 apiece. But this trans­lates to some Sh450,000 a week for the groups.

For the weavers across the dusty vil­lages of Migwani, pay comes via the pay­ing points in trad­ing cen­tres or through elec­tronic M-Pesa and Zap. Groups in the aloe indus­try are equally buoyed finan­cially, mak­ing about Sh60,000 every week. Result? The once hope­less vil­lagers are smil­ing all the way to mar­kets and shops. Chil­dren are going to school and deaths from Aids have gone down due to bet­ter nutrition.

A local organ­i­sa­tion known as Regional Insti­tute for Social Enter­pRise (Rise) through Mr Philip Mwan­gangi, says from a sit­u­a­tion where peo­ple earned noth­ing, nearly Sh2 mil­lion is earned by ordi­nary vil­lagers each month. He said: “We are train­ing farm­ers in nurs­ery man­age­ment, graft­ing and water har­vest­ing for irri­ga­tion. About 400 group-based farm­ers have been tar­geted for the first phase. Fruit tree nurs­eries are already in place,” he said.

Other areas Rise has tar­geted, accord­ing to Mr Mwan­gangi, include green­house hor­ti­cul­ture and agro-forestry. He says five pilot green­houses have been planned for grow­ing toma­toes by selected com­mu­nity organ­i­sa­tions. The agro-forestry endeav­our is vis­i­ble in the tree nurs­eries tended by each of the 19 organ­i­sa­tions, and tree plant­ing is tak­ing place on Kwa Mutotya Hill in Nza­uni Loca­tion that has been ren­dered bare by ille­gal log­gers and char­coal burners.

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