Nema's Story

Before the 2016 conflict, I had a good life. I was selling charcoal and daga fish at my home, and I also earned some money from agricultural activities from my village to support my children in school.

I was enrolled in the Women for Women International programme before I fled. I planted one acre of groundnuts that I planned to sell after harvest, but due to the conflict I could not harvest them. I did not have access to my farm due to insecurity and it affected my plans in agribusiness. I could not complete the programme because I fled.

During the conflict, I became more frustrated and stressed. I lost most of my property and I was separated from my husband.

I was left alone with my children.

Life became very hard. Feeding myself or my children was not easy. My village was not accessible and I became an internally displaced person with a limited piece of land for agribusiness. I lost my business capital, my children were not at school and I could only cultivate enough for home consumption. This made earning money very hard during that period.

When Women for Women International started its programme in 2019, I told them how I was interested in fulfilling my objective of becoming an entrepreneur by enrolling in the programme again. In the first six months of training, I was able to join the savings group and was nominated as treasurer of that group by the other group members.

After receiving the stipend for two months, I started a retail business at home where I was selling onions, daga fish, tomatoes, local coffee and cooking oil.