Tabitha Wangari is an expert beautician who owns her own beauty salon on the compound of her home. She braids, combs, relaxes, and waxes her customers’ hair, sometimes seeing more than five ladies per day depending on their needs. No one would imagine that only two years ago, Tabitha operated her business outside on a dirt road, with no shelter or supplies to speak of. It was Ngong Women’s Cooperative, an OAIC-sponsored group, which gave Tabitha the resources to improve her salon and generate income to support her entire family.

Before owning her own business, Tabitha was employed in a beauty salon in town. She worked long hours, but her wage never seemed to fully support her children and her husband, who was unemployed at the time. She had dreams of owning a salon where she could make more money. Yet when she quit her job to start her own business she could not pay to rent a space for her shop. After some time passed, Tabitha managed to set up a shop on the road outside her house. Yet she lacked shelter, and the rain and dust drove customers away.