“I am a very happy woman with power to say yes and no to anything”

Rhoda is a 32-year-old mother of four children. She stays in Rier village located in Koch County with her four children (2 boys and 2 girls) and her elderly husband in his 70’s and other relatives. Due to his advancing age, Rhoda’s husband is unable to cater for his family. As a result, Rhoda bears the burden of supporting the family solely. “I started my tea business with distress after failing to find answers to my family needs.” she said. “My children need clothes, school fees, food and other needs and my husband is now 70 and he hasn’t been able to feed the family for the last 10 years, it has always been me struggling.”

Amidst difficulty of raising capital to start her tea business, Rhoda convinced the husband to let her sell off their only cow which he agreed to. In 2016 during the South Sudan crisis, Rhoda started her business with a capital of 25,000 SSP which she made from the cow sale. She used the money to buy utensils such as a kettle, cups, tables, sugar, and food for the family.

Rhoda’s business didn’t fetch much in the beginning as she used to get between 1000 to 1500 SSP per day and she used the profits to pay for school fees, buy food, family clothing and treatment of family members. With her meagre resources and high expenses, the tea business alone couldn’t meet all her needs since she had an extended family.

In a bid to expand her business, Rhoda decided to join a village savings group (VSLA) supported by CARE in September 2020. The VSLA enabled her to borrow 50,000 SSP (125 USD) which she used to buy saucepans, chairs, plates, stoves, flour etc. “In December last year, I decided to expand my tea shop to include a food business. I have already paid back the loan I borrowed of with a profit of 30,000 SSP. She Currently, I am getting 5000 SSP on slow days and 10,000 on a busy day from both the tea and food business in this market of Rier. Rier is a small village with few residents, and this affects business however from time-to-time passengers proceeding to Bentiu and those who work in the oil fields significantly support Rhoda’s business.”

“With my new business, I am now a very happy woman with power to say yes and no with regards to anything concerning myself and my family.” stated the cheerful and empowered Rhoda about her achievement because of her involvement in the savings and Loans group.

Rhoda in her tea shop serving her customers

The VSLA group recently shared their profits and Rhoda is willing to continue with the savings and she hopes to expand her business further since the business is beneficial to her family. Rhoda wants to explore baking bread to add value to her business however her only obstacle is the lack of an oven to fulfill her dream.

Rhoda is among the six VSLA group members established under the Reconciliation Stabilization & Resilience Trust Fund (RSRTF) project. The project’s aim is to improve better livelihoods through resilience building in the community. The project adapted an approach that groups community members into VSLA (an approach CARE is good at) and support the women in income generating activities.