100 Refugee Women Launch Micro-Businesses in Camps

Over the past 3 months, Mercy Beyond Borders enrolled 45 more refugee women to become entrepreneurs. Why is that so important?

Refugees living in UN camps receive monthly rations, but they are designed to be "subsistence level" -- enough to keep a person alive, but not enough to keep hunger at bay.  Rations consist of grains such as rice or corn along with cooking oil.  Nothing more. No fresh vegetables of fruits. No variety.  And over the past 2 years, those simple rations have been reduced by over 40% in all camps globally due to shortfalls in UN revenue. 

That's why your support of the Refugee Women entrepreneurs matters so much!  Mercy Beyond Borders enrolls refugee women into its basic business training workshops and then provides $200 loans for these women to start their own small businesses.  The income these entrepreneurs earn thru the work of their hands supplements those meagre UN rations.  It also gives these women tremendous self-confidence and hope. They see themselves now as capable survivors, not just vulnerable exiles.  

This is the story of one of them: Deborah (name changed for privacy)

Deborah remembers the exact day when her village was attacked by armed cattle rustlers in Jonglei, South Sudan back  in 2012. (She has been living in the refugee camp for 9 years now.)

“It was horrible,” she says, holding her head in her hand. “The raid killed dozens of people, including my relatives and all of our cattle. We scattered to different directions for dear life.  After some months barely surviving in the forests, my 5 children and I joined some other displaced people walking southward. At first we stopped in Juba, the capital city of South Sudan, but life there was impossible due to high prices and always being scared of violence, especially against women.”

Eventually they reached the border of Uganda and, after a long registration process, they were allowed to settle in Olua II refugee camp.  Life remained very difficult in the camp with only minimal access to any health care, education or economic services. 

“We receive food rations,” says Deborah, “but we always feel hunger. The UN reduced the amount by 2/3 because they have run low.

“A new dawn came for me i when I enrolled in the Mercy Beyond Borders micro-enterprise loan program. They organized and taught us for 3 days:  how to form a group and elect officers, how to convene meetings, how to record our savings and know the difference between my loan and my profits. Using my MBB loan, I established myself as a community lender!  Me, a refugee woman who never before had handled money or made my own decisions! Up to now this has brought me good income and I feel proud. With that success and since we were born cattle keepers, I have purchased two heifers after repaying my MBB loan.”

Deborah encourages other women to apply for an MBB Micro-Enterprise loan.  She tells them: “You will be able to support your own families even when husbands are not with you. Children’s school fees and stomachs and medical needs cannot wait for men.”

Deborah lifts her head and says to Sister Marilyn, “We women praise the Mercy Beyond Borders supporters because they are the great ones who are lifting us up. Shukran [Thank You].”

Alia Rose is a refugee from South Sudan, now living in a camp. But she is so much more than that!  She is a mom, caring for a family of 6.  Her family receives a mere 250 grams of food per person per day from the UN. She must queue for water, forage for firewood, cook, care for her children, patch the walls and roof of her mud hut when it rains, cultivate her tiny garden, 

Now, thanks to you, Alia is also an ENTREPRENEUR.  She participated in a micro-enterprise training workshop with Mercy Beyond Borders (MBB) and then qualified for an MBB loan of $200.  With that she purchased seeds and tools and after much hard work was able to harvest groundnuts -- peanuts -- to sell for cash.  She parlayed that cash into shoes for her children* so that they could attend school in the camp. 

Alia qualified for a second loan, with which she bought new inventory to expand her small business.  She has already repaid both loans. Your support means that, despite Covid-19 restrictions, her children are surviving the cutbacks in UN rations. They are in school. They have hope. And Alia feels the pride of ownership for the first time in her life.

This project has enabled Mercy Beyond Borders to enroll, train and fund 90 refugee women to date. All have started their businesses.  THANK YOU!

*NOTE: Primary school in the refugee camps in free, but children without shoes cannot attend.