14 budding female agrientrepreneurs from the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) have been granted a place in the November 2015 intake of the online mentoring program for young women entrepreneurs.
Like many youths in Kenya, Catherine is a juggler. By day, Catherine is a certified public accountant, keeping an eye on Murang’a University College’s accounts. By night, she is an entrepreneur tending to 600 head of chicken. Much to her surprise, her agri-business is outrunning her main job; it is generating more income than what she earns as a trained accountant.
She also has a son who loves fruit. Yellow passion fruits to be specific. But she dismayed at the amount of added sugar that Kenya’s imported passion fruit juice contains.
How did Noah, an IT specialist, become a very successful full-time farmer? It was during a visit to a client in Angola where he was installing new networking equipment. He went to the villages and saw how hunger was affecting people even though they had fertile soils. He thought and said to himself; ‘I have to do something back home’.
Back home he received a gift of land from his father in-law (an experienced farmer) and his new career was born.
“If you don't build your dream, someone will hire you to help build theirs.” Nancy Mwaniki borrows these words from Tony Gaskins to deliver a strong message to all the mentees.
She believes that the YPARD mentoring program will help all the mentees discover themselves and start building their dreams.
Sarah Mukolwe was born in Kajiado county and raised in West Pokot -- two counties well known for their pastoralist activities. She experienced many of the challenges faced by pastoralists, especially disease pandemics that often wiped their stocks.
In the hope of understanding and providing solutions to these pandemics, Sarah became a researcher, focusing on emerging and re-emerging pests and parasites, diagnosing and treating diseases and developing vaccines.
Society and funding bodies are increasingly demanding that scientists take the stage and communicate their research clearly and effectively to diverse audiences. This isn’t a skill that Irene Kagera – a young research scientist – feels super confident with, but unlike many of her counterparts, she’s proactively doing something about it.
“I believe that the future belongs to those who prepare for it. By enrolling in the YPARD mentoring program, I hope to overcome my public speaking fears and stand out from my research peers.”
Kabokyek, a small village in Kericho County is where Duncan Cheruiyot was born and bred. As a small boy, Duncan wanted to be an automotive technician but his environment did not favour such dreams. His was a predominantly farming community and so only farming related ideas flourished.
Sugarcane farming is the major economic activity in the area and maize is grown for domestic consumption. During the holidays, Duncan and his siblings worked on the farm weeding in the sugarcane and maize plantations. He hated the holidays, but with time he developed a liking for farming – that’s when he realized the new clothes and shoes his parents bought him came from the farm proceeds.