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In January, The Maa Trust began advertising and enrolling for the Street Business School (SBS) entrepreneurship training which will begin on 8th February at Aitong Discovery Center. The final registration for this training took place on Monday at Aitong. 43 community members from Aitong registered for the free training course which will take six months to complete and graduate from.
The training aims to eradicate poverty by igniting entrepreneurial potential. The normal first response when trying to solve poverty-related problems in the community always would be “I don’t have funds to support me, so I can’t address these problems.” By igniting entrepreneurism within communities, each individual is encouraged to get out of their comfort zones and change their lives for the better. This is achieved through training the community members on an intensive six months course on how to build confidence and teaching business skills that will in turn lead to self-sustaining businesses in our communities.
The trainees will be coached by our Gender Project Officer, Isen Kipetu, who is a Lead Business Coach certified by Street Business School (SBS). She is skilled to coach small-scale entrepreneurs on how to fight poverty through business.
“I sell Maasai Shuka and during market days, I sell potatoes, cabbages, onions, and Maasai bracelets. I have registered to attend these classes because I want to learn how I can expand my business.” Namunyak Kirokor (above), a businesswoman who registered for SBS, 2021.
In 2019, 32 trainees graduated with a Street Business School certificate after The Maa Trust’s first cohort through the 6-month, 8 module entrepreneurship course in Talek. The course covers a wide variety of business skills including business identification, bookkeeping, market research, and business planning.
“I joined the SBS training that took place in Talek in 2019. I studied for six months and graduated. I have seen a lot of benefits from the training. When I started the training, I only had a hotel, but by the time we reached the third month of the training, I was able to plan and start another business of a butchery next to my hotel. The training showed me the importance of relying on more than one source of income and how to tap into the available market. Thank you, Maa Trust” Simion Lenkoko Koya (above), first cohort graduate, Talek.
In 2020, the SBS Coaches focused on following up on the graduates and seeing how the training had impacted their lives. The first Talek cohort members named their group as SBS Enyuatta. The members have developed their businesses and also came up with the following initiatives:
Officially registering as a self-help group;
A women group emerged within the SBS Enyuata group that is focused on developing a joint milk enterprise. The project involves purchasing a milk cooler and helping with supplying locally produced milk to large milk processing industries;
Efforts to start a SACCO are also underway.
Many businesses around the world have been affected by Covid-19; the Maasai Mara has not been left unscathed. The Maa Trust is working with communities in Maasai Mara to support them in any way they can to cope with the devastating effects of the pandemic through livelihood diversification.
To support The Maa Trust achieve its objectives, kindly follow the links below to donate:
For UK Gift Aid donations
The Maa Trust Charitable Foundation: justgiving.com/maatrust
For USA 501(c)3 and international donations
Sidekick Foundation: sidekickfoundation.org/donate/
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