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From fear to finance !
Refugee Diing runs
micro-finance in Kakuma
Traumatised by the killings of my relatives and friends in South Sudan, I arrived in refugee camp Kakuma. Here I found peace of mind and I became a schoolteacher. But I found my destiny in micro-finance: I established a micro-finance company with over 20 other refugees. We have so far saved the lives of many sick people.
I'm Peter Manyang Diing, 33 years old and South Sudanese by nationality. I'm married and a father of three kids. I fled from my country of origin in 1997 together with my parents and siblings due to insecurity and prevailing civil war by then. The war that broke out in 1991 and never stopped up to 1997. My village was attacked abruptly at night. In the process, many people were killed in my presence including my grandfather, other relatives and friends. It was a heartbreaking attack whereby most of us were traumatised by the merciless killing and atrocities committed by the militia men. However, through the will of God, we managed to run into the nearby bushes and proceeded into the dark forest with other groups of people from the village. After spending restless days and nights moving from one place to another, we met with someone who directed us to the Refugee Camp Kakuma. We finally came to Kakuma after walking for several days without enough food, water and proper accommodation. It was a tough journey. When we arrived in Kakuma life was different. We faced many challenges. For instance, the climate was hot and dry. And we depended on only one type of food. Almost everything in Kakuma was different! But the most important thing was that we found peace of mind. During our first days in Kakuma we were full of nightmares of those horrific and traumatic experiences in our country. I joined school and I successfully completed both primary and secondary school. After completion of secondary school, I was sponsored by Windle International Kenya under the DD-Puri program to go for tertiary education. I chose to pursue Primary Teachers Education in St. Mary's Teachers college in Taita Taveta. Through hard work and determination, I finished the course successfully and I went back to South Sudan. I went to South Sudan because I wanted to be a social change agent by educating the communities.
I got a job in the office of the ministry of education as an inspector for all the primary schools in Jonglei State. Later, I was promoted to be a head teacher at the Royal Junior Academy in Jonglei State. After serving for one year, I decided to come back to Kenya for further studies. And I joined Kenyatta University to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in special needs education. I managed to obtain my Bachelor’s degree, but because of the civil war that broke out again in South Sudan in 2013, I decided to come back to Kakuma since my country was no longer safe for me. And I was employed by the Lutheran World Federation as a primary school teacher. I'm still working as a teacher currently. But I realised teaching alone could not help me and the community. And I came up with this idea of establishing a micro-finance business. This was a well thought idea based on research. I noticed that people in Kakuma are faced with challenges - more especially in the middle of the months, but they can’t get money to solve these challenges because many people receive their salaries or incentives only at the end of the month. So, I came up with an idea of establishing a micro-finance business that provides small loans to people in need. But I didn't have the capital to start this business. So, I decided to look for more people who would like to join and work with me in funding the project. I was lucky to find 21 people who were interested. We formed a group of 22 members, 15 males and 7 females. We named our business the Wunda Youth Group. In the group I was selected as the secretary of the team. Each contributed a specific amount of money and we finally started our micro-finance business in 2018. Currently, our business is helping the community in many ways. For instance, we loan out the money to people in the community at the low interest rate of 10%. The business is also helping students to pay their school fees. In addition, we provide loans to people with emergency needs. For example, to people with sicknesses. We have so far saved the lives of many sick people. They have been using the loans they got from us to pay their medical expenses. The business has improved our own lives abundantly. We are now able to support ourselves, our families and even our friends. We are grateful for the help that we received from Africa Action Help International (AAHI). Thanks to a loan we received from them we could grow our business. And we are thankful for the training we got from them in the framework of their business incubator in Kakuma. We were trained on cash flow management systems. And on the business model canvas which involves knowing how to design a business plan. This training really improved our managerial skills and we are now capable to manage and create effective relationship with our clients.
Interested to get into contact with Diing? Email: info@i-am-kakuma.online
