Phostine Simiyu
Beadwork & poultry
She raises poultry alongside her craft work. Her daughter is starting university.
“I have a small groceries business and I rear chickens for sale and for the eggs, thanks to the support I was given.”
Phostine was married very young and endured domestic abuse from her husband, who eventually drove her and her children out of their home. With nowhere else to go they returned to her father's place, where she was given a tiny house to live in. Life was difficult with no work to support her family. A neighbour, Joan, a member of the Baskets and Beads group, saw her struggle and invited her to join.
Joining gave Phostine new hope. She found friends and a supportive community of women. With their help her daughter June was able to attend school through the sponsorship program, and for a while life felt good. Then floods swept away her house. No one was hurt, but she lost everything. The group quickly built her a new home and replaced her belongings, and that support stirred jealousy among her brothers. When she started farming and raising chickens to provide for her family, they drove her off the land, claiming a woman could not inherit property from her father.
Homeless again, Phostine became overwhelmed with stress, fell seriously ill, and developed high blood pressure. The women in the group rallied around her with encouragement and help with her medical care, and she got back on her feet. Today she has a place to live with her children and is raising chickens again. Her daughter is joining university this year.
In Phostine’s words
“To get land and build my own house and have a place of my own.”
Stand behind Phostine
Gifts go into the group’s shared table banking pool and the programs that support every woman in the circle: materials, literacy, medical help, and school fees for their children.
