Spotlight on Korr

Big sky landscape at sunset near Korr

Korr is a small town surrounded by nomadic villages, some as far as 20 miles away. Of the 40 Korr businesses funded by BOMA in early 2009, 38 were still in operation as of July 2010. While the 18 businesses in town are diverse—including butcheries, a bakery, a restaurant and a construction materials supplier—the 20 businesses in the nomadic villages are all small kiosks selling food and basic household supplies.

Although the town-based businesses are thriving, the village kiosks provide the best example of REAP’s impact and its ability to change lives. After a year or more in business, these 20 REAP entrepreneurs are able to use the profits to pay for medical and school expenses. Members also take food from the business on group-approved credit during lean times, as reflected in improved dietary indicators.

• The REAP businesses are also an important source of emergency funds for the community. Twelve of the businesses reported loaning or giving money to non-members for school or medical expenses.
• A final indication of success is the words of the REAP members themselves. All 20 interviewees took great pride in their businesses, a feeling that in the Rendille language is usually expressed with the phrase, “our eyes are now open.” 

Holiya Eisimlebbe is chairperson of the Isokhabani business group, a kiosk that sells cooking oil, maize, washing detergent and beads in the village of Nahagan. She is married and the mother of seven children, one of whom attends school. “Before, when we did not have this business, we would have nothing to eat and we would sleep hungry,”she says. “Since we got this business, it has helped us a lot…You get food from the business. If your child is going to secondary school, we do not go to the shops in Korr to [beg] for money—we just pay the school fees. When the livestock need medicine, people come to us and we help them and then they pay us back…The drought was really affecting us when we didn’t have this money…Our livestock perished, so if we did not have this business, some of us might not be alive. This business has really helped us.”

Brilee Rimoti, a Rendille Warrior, on a rock near Korr