Our Jenga Bizna Program has kicked off
We are glad to announce a great milestone today in our journey towards empowering young men through Lifesong Kenya. We officially kick-started our ‘Jenga Bizna’ Program, thanks to generous support from the Merck Family Foundation.
The ‘Jenga Bizna’ Program seeks to support exceptional young men who have business ideas that they either want to start or already running. This is through providing funding, business mentorship and networking opportunities.
A couple of years back when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Lifesong Kenya actively participated in funding food provisions for families. Our plan was to help local business women known as Mama Mboya and small scale business owners to get and sell their stock by buying from local businesses within the community.
Up to date we are still in touch with some of the women we supported and they were able to sustain and grow their business during that difficult period. It is from this idea of sustaining local businesses, that our ‘Jenga Bizna’ Program was birthed. However, we did not have the financial muscle to grow this dream.
Jenga Bizna Program: a dream come true...
Now, a few years later we have managed to reignite this dream, thanks to the Merck Family Foundation. We have finally began a small seed fund to support upcoming and deserving exceptional young men. This cause is guided by the parable of the mustard seed where we find out how faithful can one be with the littlest of resources and eventually grow it with hard work, patience and dedication.
Our first recipient is Kennedy Kuria, popularly known as Kush or his artist’s stage name Papa Lighter. Kush is a resident of Jericho Estate located in the Eastlands area of Nairobi where he runs an organization called Anti-Drugs Anti-Crime alongside his brother, Mark. Kush is an entrepreneur who runs Ushoto Kwetu, that sells healthy foods, such as whole meal Porridge and Chapati.
We met Kush a couple of months back through our Treasurer and Partnerships Director, Edward ‘Nyatti’ Mbogo who had interacted with him through a music mentorship program at ADMI. Kush has a very interesting backstory that we shall be publishing in our blog soon. After we heard about his business idea, we started discussing how we can support him. Kush has also assisted us to facilitate our ongoing Zuia Noma Advocacy Programs in Eastlands this past August.
Sowing seeds of greatness
Lifesong has therefore partnered with Ushoro Kwetu by providing them with a small funding package of KES 25,000 to restock his business with new equipment and stock since he was leasing from a friend who eventually took back his equipment and rendered him stranded for sometime.
We are positive that this boost together with our support and mentoring will help him get back on his feet as well as grow the business and get several young men he works with into employment through the business.
All systems go at Ushoro Kwetu! Hope to supply you some tasty Uji and Chapati soon.
