Women’s CHE group builds candle-making business in Nairobi slums
Giles and Alison Emery are three months into their new lives as CMF missionaries in Nairobi, Kenya, and are already immersed in both language learning and their work with Missions of Hope International (MOHI). Part of Alison’s role is to collect and share some of the many stories of transformation that are happening every day in the Mathare Valley. She shares one of those stories here.
In a dimly-lit, 10×10 room, three women take turns pouring brightly-colored wax into a trough, scraping off the excess wax, trimming wicks, and packaging the final product: candles that will be used to light the darkness in many homes throughout Kiamaiko.
These women are part of a larger community health evangelism (CHE) group– 22 members in total– that began at the Missions of Hope (MOHI) Kiamaiko center in 2013. The group aptly named themselves “Bright Mothers.” They produce approximately 80 taper candles each week, separated into 10 packets of eight. The women sell their packets of candles in the community for a total profit of around $22, which they share. They also share the work. Each woman in the group is assigned a separate duty in the candle-making process, and they work together to create the final product.
CHE is the bedrock of all MOHI programs. CHE empowers a community to identify its own needs and the local assets to address those needs. MOHI social workers and CHE trainers who work in a community assist community members in forming groups and identifying potential projects to meet a need in the community. Additionally, spiritual lessons are taught as CHE group members experience personal and community transformation.
The women in the “Bright Mothers” group researched their options for potential projects, initially desiring to sell maize (corn) flour, which is a staple in the Kenyan diet. However, they learned it would be too expensive to process the maize for sale. Recognizing the lack of electricity in Kiamaiko homes, they decided to make candles instead.
According to the MOHI social worker who trained them, the women saved their own money —approximately 50 cents per week — to purchase a candle-making machine and supplies. The women learned the entire candle-making process in a single day.
Currently, the women are saving a portion of their weekly profits to purchase a bigger machine that will make at least twice as many candles, potentially doubling their profit. They also re-use the scraps from each batch of candles to make more candles, maximizing their resources and reducing waste.
The women in “Bright Mothers” shine their lights in Kiamaiko in more ways than one. Once a month they give back to their community by performing a service project as a group. Recently, the group cleaned the home of a woman in the community who is bedridden due to illness.
By being empowered to succeed, the women in “Bright Mothers” are free to share their gifts with the community as God continues to transform them spiritually. The hope that they share with others holistically transforms not only their individual families, but also their entire community.