Community Driven Microlending

Zawadisha provides simple but life-changing household items like rainwater tanks, clean cook stoves, and solar lamps to women and their families through a lending model rooted in local communities.

Without Zawadisha, rural Kenyan women would not be able to afford these items. We give them access to household and business goods that create an immediate and dramatic improvement in the quality of their lives:

1. Money is spent on school fees for children instead of on kerosene lamps.

2. Women can use the six hours they would have spent walking to a river for water or into the forest for fuel wood on income-generating activities.

3. Women’s status in the home is elevated as they are the ones responsible for the dramatic changes that benefit the entire family.

Our high-touch, local, and compassionate approach meets the challenges and needs of rural Kenyan communities. By combining increased access to goods with trainings on how to maximize their use, these women are equipped with the tools they need to drastically improve their life and the life of their family.

  • The Problem

    Women, as the primary caregivers in the home, are the ones responsible for collecting water, finding fuel wood, cooking on dangerous rock stoves, and working by toxic kerosene and paraffin lamps.

    Their lamps are dim and expensive, and they, along with the three rocks they use to cook on, create poor indoor air quality, and cause fires. Women often times spend up to 20 hours per week collecting water; this represents two full months of lost labor potential.

  • The Challenge

    As a result, women are chronically time-poor. They are forced to make difficult decisions around seeking healthcare, earning an income, or attending to their children’s and their own education. Despite the innovations in clean energy and water, the cost is prohibitive for many rural families, making solar lamps, rain water tanks, clean cook stoves, and other household items out of reach.

  • Our Solution

    Traditional micro-finance institutions are not equipped to deal with these issues or this population. They struggle in rural areas because of minimal community engagement, low trust, and high fees. Therefore, communities continue to be left out and marginalized. That's where we come in.

    We remove the barriers for rural women to access essential household items and items essential for their businesses. We deliver these items directly to their doorsteps, and they pay for them over time.

  • Our Impact

    When women living in poverty have access to high-quality household goods, they see a dramatic increase in the quality of their lives.

    Money is spent on school fees for children instead of on kerosene lamps. Women can use the six hours they would have spent walking to a river for water or into the forest for fuel wood on income-generating activities. Children sit at tables and study under the light of solar lamps.

    Women’s status in the home is elevated as they are the ones responsible for the dramatic changes that benefit the entire family.

  • Where You Come In

    When you donate to Zawadisha or purchase a handmade item from us, you are not only supporting local artisans across Africa, you are helping us provide more loans for essential household items that radically improve the lives of women and their families.

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