Profile: The Grocery Group

July 7, 2009

As I mentioned in the last post, I had lunch with a VEF entrepreneur yesterday named Joseph Murunga (pictured above in his shop being interviewed by Sylviah). Joseph and his four partners (two male, two female) received the VEF grant for their business, christened “The Grocery Group,” in 2005. The business has grown from a market stall to a permanent shop in the Bukura market where they sell different types of vegetables, beans, lentils, maize, and milk. The group started off selling just veggies, but as the business grew they expanded to the other goods, and the group invested some profits in a dairy cow that provides them with milk to sell, too. The group members grow some of the products at home, and they buy others and resell them at their shop. I would have liked to meet with all five members, but because they take turns manning the shop we were only able to meet Joseph when we visited. He accompanied us to lunch and told us his story, which I am willing to bet is very similar to the stories of the rest of the group members, too.

Before receiving the grant, Joseph was just a small-scale, subsistence farmer. He has a shamba outside of Bukura, and, like most subsistence farmers around here, was very poor and reliant on a good season of rain to put food on the table. Money for school fees, much less any discretionary spending, was non-existent. He said that he had wanted to start a business for some time, but that before VEF’s grant he had absolutely no way to access any sort of capital that he would need to start. Luckily for Joseph, he heard Father William’s description of VEF’s program. Joseph and his four other group members applied for the grant, underwent business training, and then received the first grant installment in June, 2005. Since then, as I have described, their business has blossomed. The group pools the profits, and each member is entitled to a share (the group also reinvests some of the profits in the business, as demonstrated by their purchase of the dairy cow). With his personal share of the profits, Joseph has singlehandedly lifted up his family from extreme poverty. He told us that he has seven children. The oldest two had to drop out of school early on (before Joseph had started with the business) because they couldn’t pay the fees. He then smiled with great pride as he told us that his youngest five children, however, are all enrolled in school and all doing very well. The profits have also been able to put food on the table and given the family a safety net to fall back to if unforeseen expenses come up. Because each member of the group takes turns running the shop, Joseph is still able to farm, too. He said that he and the group are continuing to work well together, and they were all eager to look for new ways to expand the business.

It’s hard to think of a story that more encapsulates what VEF is all about. $100 or $150 is not all that much money, but it can provide the push that groups like Joseph’s need to get off the ground and onto the first rung of the ladder out of poverty. Once they’re on the ladder, the group members gain control of their own destinies, and their hard work and determination is what really makes the business succeed and their lives improve. I have heard stories like Joseph’s from many entrepreneurs that I have met, but hearing new ones never gets old.