Lucy Mepedzisi, a woman from Mhangami village in ward 10 which is located 28 km South of the lovely mountainous Shurugwi town, was born into a poor family 54 years ago. She is married and blessed with 4 children all are married but her husband was retrenched. Since the retrenchment of her husband life became a continuous, difficult journey of hardships. She never dreamt that she would own anything of value in life.

As she was narrating her story one could easily cry because of the life, she lived was so wretched, to the extent that she was given quasi names in the village. However a new dawn has arrived for Lucy, after she met Hand in Hand in 2014 as it provided knowledge on enterprise development and technical skills training in various aspects of life. She invited some of the women in her ward to form a group which they called Mukadzi Kushanda. The group consists of 14 women and at first they started off by saving $2 each and currently there are saving $10 per member every month at 20% interest charged on disbursed loans.

“ Prior to meeting Hand in Hand she had a business but nothing come out of that business as it was mainly hand to mouth consumption, however life changed after meeting the Hand in Hand team, as she borrowed money from their self-help group funds and started a small enterprise.”

She appreciated that, she never had an opportunity to go to school, so the Hand in Hand trainings were of much essence in her life, as she was not aware of any basic business topic “Nhasi ndatovewo graduate”. After receiving several trainings from Hand in Hand, she is now able to identify business opportunities, do proper record keeping and budgeting in her enterprises.  She lamented that since obtaining these trainings her life started to change and the business started to boom, all the pseudo names she was given in the village started to disappear. Mrs Mupedzi was grateful of the work that Hand in Hand in collaboration with government department is doing in their ward. “My sincere gratitude goes to the Hand in Hand and the government ministries for their untiring support and being an eye opener in business arena and technical skills training. Ndakadzidziswa kuchengeta chikafu chezvipfuwo zvangu sezvo mafuro achinetsa”

Lucy borrowed money from the group, started an enterprise of selling airtime, netting $2 profit  weekly but she never rested. She appreciated the trainings especially module one of Money Manage, as she is now  able to plan and budget well in her enterprise. In addition to that, Lucy’s diversify her enterprise ventured into selling of clothes and now she is enjoying a noble profit. A lot has changed in her life since obtaining trainings from Hand in Hand, she managed to renovate the house, tubing and electrifying the house and bought a nice black counch. In addition to that, she is now paying $40-00 school fees for her 2 granchildren both are at primary school.

Mr Mupedzisi had this to say “ After retrenchment, I thought it was end of life and things were difficult as I could not fend for my family, but God just answered our prayers through Hand in Hand trainings and the ISAL concept. I am now a man among other men in the village as our homestead looks beautiful through the hard work and teachings obtained by my better half Lucy.”