Constance Museka, a widow and mother of nine is a member of Kuwadzana group in ward 6 of Chikomba District. Ward 6 is approximately 25km from Chivhu town and people in the area are mainly involved in subsistence farming, which is their way of life.

However, this farming season the region received below normal rainfall and this meant that people had to look elsewhere for survival.

Faced with such a daunting task, Mrs Museka had to turn to her entrepreneurial skills. The highly talented woman, who is skilled in pottery, knitting and making African traditional carpets (mhasa), did not have to look far for an income generation project.

Armed with new entrepreneurship skills and technical capacity she received from Hand in Hand Zimbabwe, Mrs Museka was soon on the road selling her wares.

Before she came into contact with HiH Zimbabwe life was very difficult for her as she struggled to meet most of her family needs such as paying school fees for her children, and securing food and a decent accommodation.

Despite being a hardworking and very industrious lady, the widow lacked the knowledge and skills that would enable her to discover entrepreneurial opportunities in her surroundings and develop more enterprises.

Through the entrepreneurial trainings Mrs Museka has now realized the importance of record keeping in business, which is now assisting her to budget her money and put some aside for the family upkeep.

Before the trainings, Mrs Museka used to rely on support from the church to send her children to school, but now she managed to take one of her sons to Daramombe High School – a boarding school. She really gives thanks to HiH Zimbabwe Module 2- money management, which opened her eyes to more business opportunities. “Upon realizing the presence of Hand in Hand Zimbabwe within our community, we formed our own SHG comprising of five ladies. We started contributing $20.00 to our ISAL savings with an interest rate of 20%. I give much credit to this scheme because I managed to expand and develop my enterprises through loans from our ISAL contribution. I am also thankful to the trainings on record keeping, all my business deals are documented and I am now able to trace progress of my business,” she said.

Mrs Museka now prides herself as a growing entrepreneur and is grateful to the Lord for blessing her with working hands.

When she looks back she wonders where she could have been were it not for the HiH Zimbabwe entrepreneurial trainings. She continues to thank the community for allowing HiH Zimbabwe to come and empower women in her ward to be business minded.