Naoroi Ene Ntaiyia

Naoroi Ene Ntaiyia lives in Empurkel, about 1-hour walking distance from Enoosaen – a small village in Transmara district in Kenya. She joined the program in summer 2014 and started learning how to sew by making Enkiteng bags (cloth gift wrapping bags) using donated fabric. She has now graduated to making the Enkiteng bags out of Kitenge fabric, as well as new products such as Kitenge knapsacks, shopping bags, wrap-skirts and other products made of Kitenge. In 2019, she also participated in our Pamoja program, where the seamstresses learned how to make all the garments of school uniforms and other products that they will be able to sell in Kenya, becoming independent seamstresses.

Naoroi does not have any formal education. Her family could not afford to pay for her school tuition – she never went to school. She works hard to ensure that all her children and the children of her brother – which she is also caring for – attend school; and she is determined to send them all to university. She is widowed and cares for 9 children, 6 of which are hers, and 3 are of her ailing sister. She also cares for her grandmother.

Before she joined the Enkiteng sewing program, she used to do farming and casual labor for less than a dollar per day. She grows vegetables on her land and she used to rent additional farmland so she could grow more vegetables and sell them on the market. She was also buying maize and reselling it for profit. Before she joined the Enkiteng program, she didn’t have a bank account or any livestock. Now she has a bank account with a little bit of money saved aside, 4 dairy cows and enough money to buy food and clothes for her family, pay school tuition for all of them. She is also building a bigger house for her family to live comfortably.

Naoroi is looking forward to graduate from making Enkiteng bags and Kitenge knapsacks to things that she can sell on the market in Kenya, such as school uniforms and other items.