Our new Ndeipi training programme!

We are very excited to announce a new partnership with NDEIPI Business Training – ONE Hope Initiatives.

Makomborero Zimbabwe families have benefited from Ndeipi in the past but not in this exclusive programme set up especially for Makomborero.  Ndeipi is an entrepreneurial, small business training course and we are incredibly grateful for this partnership and the value this course will add to our families lives.  We will run four sessions split over 2019 and are excited to see how this pilot will run.   

‘NDEIPI?’ focuses on changing the response to the question ‘Ndeipi?’ (What’s up?) from ‘Hapana’ (Nothing!) We aim to empower the poor by teaching them how to generate an income by being faithful stewards of the little that they have. The Training promotes an interdependent (co-operative) approach, and discourages dependence and the feeling of helplessness faced by many poor people.

Why did it start:-

In a country where there is over 90% unemployment, most people rely on their own enterprises, or receiving money from family members to get by. Poverty and debt are major problems in Zimbabwe, leading to homelessness, alcohol abuse, crime, prostitution, poor health and feelings of helplessness. The poorest rely on handouts from family and begging in the streets. Commonly their view is that they are unable to do anything about their situation.  There are few opportunities for the poor to receive assistance with training and investments as they are viewed as a high risk group. With little experience in managing money they will often fail to pay back loans, or generate an income because of the social and economic situations they are facing.

Purpose and Outline of Project:- 

The programme teaches the participants that they can earn an income using the resources that they already have. After receiving training in income generation and how to manage money the individual is given a US$1(or equivalent). It is a small amount to demonstrate what can be done with so little. It also reduces the risk to the lender, and makes it more manageable for the beneficiary.  Once a person has successfully started making a profit from their $1, their income will increase and they will be able to grow their income generating initiative further. They will also grow in confidence that they can be successful.

Case for Sustainability:- 

Ndeipi has seen that the programme is already being passed on spontaneously to others. Once a training manual has been developed and is widely available in Shona and English we can assume this will only increase. The programme has already trained over 1000 people from several organisations and groups.  The programme needs little resources, as the primary activity is training, and the different groups, organisations and churches that have been trained in the programme are usually able to cover the cost of running the training sessions for the poor and vulnerable that they are working with. The main goal of the course is to help participants to create growing sustainable businesses and to empower the poor to be Entrepreneurs and Philanthropists by empowering others with the knowledge, skills and micro-loans they received.

On completion of the course participants are awarded a certificated if they have pitched their business, repaid their loan and taught and empowered another person with a micro loan.

Here are a few of the stories from when we ran this programme before!

Rufaro’s mum was a single, unemployed mum, trying to raise 3 children on her own. A few years previously she had bought 2 commercial sewing machines when she had some money and they had just been sitting in her home, as she had never had the money to buy fabric. After leaving the meeting, she asked her mother in the rural areas to dry different types of leafy vegetables for her. She ended up with sacks of dried veggies and used the $1 to buy bags to package the dry leaves and then sold them to the local township supermarkets. The money she raised she used to buy material to start her sewing business. She then started approaching shops in town and her township, getting orders for baby nighties, and started sewing. She hasn’t looked back and she has employed a tailor to help her because of the high demand for her sewn goods. This testimony blew us away as she is now supporting her family fairly well, she is still drying and selling the vegetables too. She has joy and life back in face and it was so special to see!

Mai Banga (our house mother), Johannes (our caretaker) and Patricia (our cook) decided to put their $3 together and grow trees! They collected seeds off the ground from two popular indigenous trees and bought black plant bags with their $3. They have successfully grown and bagged 700 trees and will be selling them to a local nursery once they are the right size. They are nursing a further 4000 seedlings, which will also need to be bagged.

We look forward to telling you how our new intake of parents get on with their projects!

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