When we met Mariam, she had typhoid fever. She had four children, of whom only two survived. Mariam lived with her daughter Loveness (born around 1999) . Loveness couldn't attend secondary school, even though she desperately wanted to. Mariam sold fruit and vegetables in a small shop near her home. After her illness, she didn't have the capital to buy supplies. We covered her medical expenses, helped her with her rent, and provided her with food. Once she recovered, we gave her the start-up materials for her shop.
Progress: About six months later, we visited Mariam. She had rented a suitable location and opened her own small outdoor restaurant there.
Mariam's business was doing well, and she was planning to build her own small stone house. She had already bought the first 300 of the 700 stones she needed. Loveness wanted to learn more English and was thinking about what she wanted to do professionally later on.
Update December 2018: Mariam's house was almost finished; only the roof was missing. Loveness was training to be a hotelier.
Update April 2020: Loveness was living with her mother again. She had a daughter, Avie, whom she was caring for. It was unclear when she would return to work at the hotel. Her hotel had told her upon her departure that she could come back anytime. We hoped that tourism would recover from the crisis by the time she was ready.
Update 2021: Mariam no longer received our support because she was managing quite well on her own. We could see progress with her every year. Unfortunately, this year was different. Her food sales didn't bring in enough to continue the construction work on her house (when we were there in January 2020, practically only the roof was missing), and she also owed 200,000 TSh on her rent.
The club no longer supports Mariam and Loveness. We wish them all the best for the future.