{"id":8351,"date":"2023-07-18T13:15:29","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T12:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/us\/?p=8351"},"modified":"2023-08-08T17:56:38","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T16:56:38","slug":"aspiring-to-a-better-life-manesis-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/us\/aspiring-to-a-better-life-manesis-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspiring to a Better Life &#8211; Manesi&#8217;s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Manesi Samalani from Malawi, pictured.<\/em><\/p><p>The clue is in the name\u2026 and the ASPIRE project has enabled hundreds of women in Malawi to make their small business dreams come true.<\/p><p>Women like Manesi Samalina, who is amongst a total of 2,700 Malawians who participated in the project &#8211; and in her case used  her handicraft skills to produce clothing and footwear that has provided her with the foundations of a small business.<\/p><p>Trained and supported by ASPIRE (Achieving Sustainable Poverty Reduction through Increased Inclusive Resilience and Empowerment), Manesi invested in the necessary equipment and materials, and started to manufacture shoes and clothing that she sells to others.<\/p><p>\u201cIn the past we didn\u2019t have a proper house where the family could sleep, and I often had to do manual work to generate an income and put food on the table,\u201d she recalls. \u201cToday, we are eating better. I now have seven goats, and I\u2019m able to afford the school fees for my children.\u201d<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"x-resp-embed x-is-video x-is-youtube\"><iframe title=\"Aspiring to a Better Life - Manesi&#039;s Story\" width=\"877\" height=\"493\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ampv7t3HyEo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure><p>Grenina Mbati was also part of the ASPIRE,&nbsp; but in joining a community grain bank where she could bulk and sell produce, and could also access&nbsp; fertilisers to increase her farming yields.<\/p><p>In total, ASPIRE worked with more than 2,700 households in Malawi\u2019s central region.&nbsp; Project measures included&nbsp; the creation of community grain banks, local irrigation schemes and activities, all&nbsp; that have improved access to inputs. Alongside&nbsp; support for enterprise development, ASPIRE increased the percentage of participants&nbsp; with a year-round supply of food from 44% up to 61%, according to project manager Blessings Kapombo.<\/p><p>ASPIRE also gave communities a voice. The programme improved links between local communities and government-run services. Village councils were able to lobby for improvements to water, roads, and other local services.<\/p><p>An extension to ASPIRE\u00a0 launched in 2022. The aim of it is to to support 35,000 households, including five farming cooperatives and 20 productive groups with 5000 members in the Dedza District of Malawi\u2019s Central Region.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The clue is in the name\u2026 our ASPIRE (Achieving Sustainable Poverty Reduction through Increased Inclusive Resilience and Empowerment) project has enabled hundreds of women in Malawi to make their small business aspirations come true.<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/us\/aspiring-to-a-better-life-manesis-story\/\"> Read More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[659,677,637],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture-nutrition","category-malawi","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.4 (Yoast SEO v24.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Aspiring to a Better Life - Manesi&#039;s Story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Manesi is one of the women who took part in our ASPIRE skills development programme in Malawi, funded by the Irish Embassy. Under the ASPIRE (Achieving Sustainable Poverty Reduction through Increased Inclusive Resilience and Empowerment) project, Manesi turned her dreams to own her own business into reality.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/us\/aspiring-to-a-better-life-manesis-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Aspiring to a Better Life - Manesi&#039;s Story\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Manesi is one of the women who took part in our ASPIRE skills development programme in Malawi, funded by the Irish Embassy. 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