In challenging times, we can turn our adversity into meaningful endeavours, and that’s exactly what Rindai Chinyakata, a trailblazing entrepreneur from Shurugwi district did.

After losing her husband in 1998, the 60-year-old was devastated and struggled to find a place in her community as she became vulnerable. To make things worse, she was chased away from her homestead in Masvingo by her late husband’s relatives.

Rindai was then forced to move from Masvingo to Shurugwi in search of greener pastures as she was now stranded with her 6 children. She applied for land at the resettlements in Shurugwi and managed to build a shelter for her children using proceeds from a vending business.

In a bid to provide decent living conditions for her children, she also started gold mining. Mining is common in Shurugwi as the town lies in a mineral-rich belt well known as the Great Dyke. This makes it one of the most mineral-rich towns in the country.

Rindai however left mining as it proved to be strenuous on her part and she ventured into buying and selling groceries at her homestead. Unfortunately, the elderly woman’s enterprise suffered losses because she didn’t understand how to effectively price and track business records.

Things however changed when she was invited to join the Hand in Hand Zimbabwe business skills trainings under the Jobs Creation Project (JCP) in 2019. The trainings are meant to equip rural entrepreneurs with vast business knowledge on how to successfully run their businesses.

She received training on managing money, marketing, credit management, financial management, and business opportunity identification.

Equipped with the vast knowledge from the business trainings, Rindai not only became a successful businesswoman but gained her confidence back as she refused to be defined by her previous circumstances.

“I am now a proper businesswoman and have since ventured into diverse income-generating projects to increase my streams of income.

“I now know how to keep track of my business’s income and expenses and my profit has increased.

“To top it all, I’m proud of the fact that I can afford to take care of 6 grandchildren since my children are all adults now,” she said.

Her multiple streams of income include broiler production, buying and selling groceries, piggery, horticulture, cattle rearing and rabbit production. The 60-year-old entrepreneur has also set up a barbershop for her son at their homestead.

From all her enterprises, Rindai makes an average profit of USD$300 per month from local sales.

Hand in Hand Zimbabwe has indeed changed her story as she has managed to set up a solar-powered system at her homestead which runs a refrigerator and stove amongst other electrical gadgets

“I am happy to be associated with Hand in Hand Zimbabwe because they changed my life for the better. Unlike in the past, I can now afford to eat whatever I want and my grandchildren are healthy,” she said.

Her future plans include upscaling her businesses and electrifying her homestead.