Nancy Karambu Riungu, 52, ran a successful tailoring and fashion design business in Kakuma town in Turkana, northwest Kenya, before two tragedies hit almost simultaneously.
The first was COVID-19, which forced businesses to downscale their operations due to restrictive measures implemented by the government to contain the global pandemic. The second was the demolition of a road reserve to pave the way for the expansion of the Lodwar—Kakuma highway.
Nancy’s Nemlon Enterprises Ltd was among the many premises affected, casting a dark shadow on the future of the six employees and 38 students who considered it home.
“It was a terrible experience. Everyone was crying; the students cried as they left. Businesses were scrambling for spaces to relocate, but I had no money to rent an alternative place to continue with the business,” Nancy narrates.
Then, in a classical illustration of the metaphor “the brightest star shines at the darkest hour of the night,” an unexpected call came. It was from the Kakuma Kalobeyei Challenge Fund (KKCF), announcing a grant for the expansion of Nemlon.
Nancy first heard of KKCF from a friend. However, when she received information from one of the KKCF field officers, she decided to apply for the funding opportunity.
“You could see the excitement in the faces of students and employees when I gathered them to break the news. We didn’t even look for a car to transport the luggage. We carried everything, including the sewing machines, on our heads to the new building,” says Nancy.
With the grant, Nancy bought electrical sewing machines, which improved business efficiency and reduced the turnaround time in the delivery of tenders. Nemlon can handle several tenders simultaneously, some involving the production of over 5,000 pieces.
“We also purchased more fabric and a machine that enables us to design logos and do branding. Before, we would take our consignments to Nairobi for branding, taking up much time and incurring huge transport costs,” she discloses, adding that more students have been absorbed in training.
A practicing nurse, Nancy decided to pursue her mother’s tailoring and dressmaking career part-time after realizing the huge opportunity for designer clothes in Kakuma.
The support from KKCF has catapulted Nemlon from a small business founded in 2014 to a household fashion designer and training institute with an extensive distribution network across the region. The business is driving development and impacting lives in Kakuma through job creation and economic empowerment for refugees and host communities.
Nemlon employs between 20 and 70 people from both refugees and the host community, depending on order availability. When the orders are large, they work in two shifts: day and night.
Driven by the desire to excel in whatever she does, Nancy has provided many women an opportunity to earn livelihoods by training them in tailoring and dressmaking. “The people who put a smile on my face are the many Turkana women who come here when they don’t even know how to read and write, but with the support of translators, they can learn and acquire skills which they use to start their businesses after graduating,” says Nancy.
To accommodate a complex mix of students, Nancy has introduced a unique training model dubbed “Learn and Earn.” The model allows students from less fortunate backgrounds to train while getting paid for their services to Nemlon and its sister company, Nakosi, a restaurant.
“We introduced repairs so that students who have acquired some level of skills can work and share the proceeds with the business while those at advanced levels or have duly completed the training are allowed to keep everything,” she explains, adding that there are also employees from the restaurant who have enrolled in training during their free time.
Faida Ishara is a student in the “learn and earn” program. A Congolese, she joined the program after her monthly allowances as a refugee were suspended for four months.
With the money from Nemlon, she can support her family, which she says cannot meet its needs from the allowances meant to cater for food supplies. “Yale napata hapa kidogo inasaidia sana kwa kulishafamilia yangu. Naeza pia kutimiza mahitaji yangu ya kibinafsi kama kununua mavazi (the little I get from here helps a lot to buy food for the family. I am also able to take care of my personal needs like clothing),” says Faida.
Mugaragu Rodger, 23, also from DRC, had prior training in tailoring and fashion design but honed his skills at Nemlon before being employed as an instructor.
Apart from earning a monthly salary to support his young family, Nemlon has given Rodger the opportunity to interact with the host community. His interactions were limited to fellow refugees at the camp, but Nemlon has given him exposure, enabling him to better understand the area.
“Here, we work as a team and support each other in delivering given tasks irrespective of our nationalities and social backgrounds. When the orders come in, we work on them together and share a lot, and this has made us bond as a family,” he says.
Nemlon is one of the businesses supported by KKCF under the Local Enterprise Development (LED), which targets small-scale entrepreneurs in Kakuma.
Brian Murithi, the KKCF Program Manager, says businesses are critical for integrating the refugee and host communities and achieving sustainable development because they understand the market dynamics.
“These businesses are focused and well established. They lack capital and technical skills to run their operations efficiently; therefore, supporting them will certainly translate to impact since they will continue providing their services on a larger scale,” says Brian.
The sky remains the limit for Nancy, and she has already set her eyes on making Nemlon Enterprises a fully-fledged vocational training institute. With additional support, Nancy hopes to provide opportunities for the youth in Kakuma, many of whom dropped out of school or completed secondary level but cannot pursue diploma or degree courses.