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Joyce Kabura Njenga, VisionFund’s Insurance Manager for Africa works in Nairobi, Kenya. She writes with passion about the important support that insurance is providing to smallholder farmers in Africa.

Often we meet families who have had to separate in order for one or both parents to find better paying work in an urban centre. This story is about a family who went to Thailand to seek work, but eventually ended up back in Myanmar where they are thriving. 

When first meeting the all-female loan collective of Djackou Mbougane, the fierce independence of each member is quickly apparent. “We love not having to ask for help,” laughs group secretary Yandé, as the collective busies themselves with their profitable market garden.

Alice and her husband, Sydney, have two daughters, Bennadett and Clemensia. They are part of the Mposa community in Machinga, Malawi. Their region suffered from a widespread drought, which destroyed the primary crops farmers planted for their livelihoods. Recovery Loans from VisionFund have helped many families in the Mposa area rebuild their livelihoods after their maize crop failed twice due to drought and then floods. Alice’s was one of them. She applied for a loan from VisionFund and invested it in growing vegetables, and later took another loan to purchase fertilizer and fuel for the communal pump that irrigates her vegetable garden. She was able to sell her vegetables at the local market to provide for her family’s needs. “If it wasn’t for the loan and these vegetables, I am sure that by today we would have sold our goats or split up the family in order to search for employment in the city,” said Sydney, who revealed that some households have adopted costly coping strategies such as withdrawing children from school and reducing food consumption which have long-term impact. VisionFund has impacted 150 families in the Mposa region, by granting them loans to rebuild their livelihoods after their maize crop failed. Women use the income earned from growing vegetables to cover their daily needs, including their children’s school fees and health care costs.

Life can be cruel at times. This is a story of a woman entrepreneur, who invested all her energy and funds to boost up her family's livelihood by engaging in a cosmetic business in the Lilongwe market.

VisionFund Uganda will be providing a Savings Group Linkage Loan for refugees and host communities in West Nile, Uganda.

As a girl, Daw Thin Thin Hlaing’s family was very poor—she often missed meals, didn’t have enough clothes and missed out on school.

Fatou sits at the busy marketplace in the town of Tamba, Senegal; baskets of mangoes laid out before her. She buys them from her village and transports them to the market early every morning.