Grace* was awarded the inaugural Chairman’s Award following her graduation from the PFP Academy and Livelihoods programme. She was selected by the team as showing outstanding achievement in the face of adversity.
Grace came to the Arise Centre as a single mother of 3. An orphan at a young age, she was raped at age 12 and married to an older husband who abused her. She escaped this marriage but found it difficult to make ends meet – working several low-paid jobs including selling fish and doing laundry for guest houses in the local area.
She signed up to our PFP Academy because she wanted a different life for her and her children – but she had to make many sacrifices to participate. She would rise at 5am to collect and wash laundry, hanging it to dry before coming to the Centre for her training. Then returning to press and fold the laundry, before going out to fish in the evenings to be able to put food on the table for her kids.
At the end of the 6 week PFP Academy programme, she had a bright idea of making the laundry soap and other detergents so that she could increase the profits of her laundry business. We supported this by teaching her soap-making at the Arise Centre.
The Chairman’s Award has given Grace the start-up capital she needs to start producing her own laundry soap, and we will incubate her business at the Arise Centre for the next 6 months, ensuring she has access to space, power and water to really get her business off the ground. We can’t wait to see how she flourishes with this small #HandshakeNotHandout.
*(Name has been changed to protect anonymity)
