Perry Adrabo
Chapati and Mandazi Baker
Uganda
At first glance, Perry Adrabo may look like a relatively poor African woman walking alongside the road selling chapatis and mandazis (Ugandan snacks). In reality, Perry is a remarkable woman who has overcome much in life and has established a successful business that has given her and many others a very bright future.
Two years ago, Perry’s husband died and she was left a widow with three young children. Not a year later, thieves stole one of her goats. In running after them, Perry fell and hurt her back and was in the hospital for two weeks. While in the hospital, thieves robbed her house again, stealing over $100 in stock.
Just before these tragic events, Perry reached out to CAFECC, PEER Servants’ microfinance partner in Northern Uganda, to help her grow her business and provide for her family. Since then she has received 7 loans totaling almost $1,500. She has been on time with her payment every week with the exception of two – the week her husband died, and the week she had to enter the hospital.
Perry now serves around 200 regular clients door to door! A high-quality product (Perry adds some extra ingredients to make her products look and taste great) sold at an affordable price (Perry offers different sizes of products to make them affordable to children and the very poor) have contributed to her success. She is expanding her client base from just individuals to institutions, taking catering orders for special events. She has increased her profits from what used to be as low as $2/day to over $200/month and employed two younger women to keep up with her growth. In the future, Perry would like to build a bakery and create the jobs that are so much needed in her community.
Now her children are going to school and getting good nutrition. She has been elected as a leader in the local Mother’s Union and Christian Women Fellowship. She has been able to transition from one who went to the church to receive to one who goes to the church to give. She is considered a role model for the many young widows in Arua and teaches many of them how to make and sell the products so that they can support their own families.
Sohagi Mallick
Waste Recycler
India
Sohagi Mallick values what others throw away – garbage! She is a very impressive and generous Muslim woman and has blessed many through her business.
Sohagi and her husband started their waste-recycling business in 2000. With just a bicycle, the pair went door to door collecting household items, plastics, metals and more to recycle and resell. Sohagi sorted and cleaned the materials, a necessary step to value them.
Two years after starting the business, Sohagi heard about Christian Service Society (CSS), PEER Servants’ Indian microfinance partner. She started with a loan of less than $50 and, bit by bit, one CSS loan after the other, grew her recycling business. 17 CSS loans later, Sohagi has more than 20 employees. She cares very much for them and even has constructed rooms adjacent to her home for them to live in. Her one asset used to be a bicycle; now her business assets run well into four figures.
Sohagi was never able to get a formal education, but she has made certain her children are getting one. Most of Sohagi’s employees also don’t have a formal education, but now they are able to send their own children to school.
Sohagi isn’t ready to call it quits anytime soon. Given more capital, she would like to grow her business even further and hire more employees. The business success has enabled her to donate clothing and food to local poor children during the Muslim festivals. She is known and respected as a very generous person by her employees, community members, CSS staff, and now perhaps more than a few Lydia Awards voters!
Analyn Estrella
Pizzeria and Meryenda Owner
Philippines
Analyn runs a pizzeria and meryenda, or snack, shop. While it is a very successful business today, it is no indication of the humble beginnings Analyn had or the hardships she has overcome.
Analyn was born in one of the Philippines poorest provinces. Her father was a farmer, and he wanted Analyn to go to school only long enough to read and write. Analyn had other plans.
Analyn built a pizza business in the late 1990s that at one point employed 15 and sold a 1,000 boxes of pizza a day. Then her mother suffered a stroke in 2004 and was comatose for a month – Analyn vowed to take as good a care of her mother as she possibly could, but in so doing, she lost almost everything, including the business. Eventually her mother came out of the coma, but remained bedridden for the rest of her life.
That is when Analyn heard about CCT, and she reached out to them for an initial loan of less than $100 to start rebuilding her business. She has since taken out over 25 loans totaling many thousands of dollars. Her business grew very impressively and she has used a top-quality product and staying open 24 hours a day to fuel that growth. She has the meryenda shop selling baked goods throughout the whole year, and then adds pizza making in the school months of June to March. She makes a special 10 inch pizza to make it affordable to students – her customers are actually schools and canteens who then sell the pizza by the slice. She sells 
almost 500 pizzas each day and generates thousands of dollars in monthly profits.
almost 500 pizzas each day and generates thousands of dollars in monthly profits.
While her business was growing, Analyn’s hunger for spiritual things was as well. She looked forward to the weekly CCT Bible studies and then one day heard Matthew 11:28 - a verse that changed her life: “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Analyn wanted that, and she decided to become a true follower of Jesus.
Analyn, the little girl who was told she would only get enough education to read and write, has in one generation established a family where her children already have or are pursuing university degrees. The children used to have to sleep under the table on which she made the dough; now they can live in a safe and more comfortable home. Analyn is considering turning her business success into a chain and opening up a branch back in Masbate, the province in which she grew up, to create much-needed jobs there.
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