Nuru’s Blessed Business
Born into a polygamous family, Nuru was raised by her grandfather along with 37 children in the family. Because of her family size and education not being a priority, Nuru was only allowed to complete primary school. After moving in with her brother and trying to make ends meet by boiling maize and sorting coffee in a factory, she was eventually thrown out of the house to fend for herself. At 17 years old, Nuru was forced to get married. Life was so difficult, that upon the birth of her first child, she had nothing to dress the baby in. Her husband agreed to give her some money (equivalent to 84 cents) for the birth. Nuru continued to find work here and there, but the business she was trying to build collapsed and she was feeling down.
Then, Nuru saw a poster about training for Street Business School. She lifted herself up and attended the orientation. When she began the training, she felt encouraged and she says the most touching part of the training was learning about finding capital and starting small. She was moved by the training and remembered that she had many items in the house she could sell to bring in capital. She sold her old clothes and made 100,000sh (about $28), which she used to start her business.
Her husband, a builder, had constructed a single room to be a rental. Seeing an opportunity as the room was sitting idle, Nuru decided to use the room for rearing chickens. While this was against her husband’s wishes, it later turned profitable! Nuru reared the chickens and yet, was not getting the return she expected after six months. She decided to sell them to invest in the businesses she has now. Nuru was quite determined to continue running her business and this proved to be a great decision! She is now running the Blessed Restaurant, has a jackfruit stand and sells sandals!
“The knowledge from the Street Business School training helped me get ahead of the rest,” she says.
