From Eight Years of Struggle to Renewed Hope

For eight years, Murja Yari, a 50-year-old widow and mother of 11 from Katsina, struggled to survive. After her husband's death she was left with no steady income, business or savings.

"There were times when we spent up to five days without anything to eat. I was afraid my children would be forced to beg."

She took in laundry for neighbours, but the small payments were never enough. Her turning point came through the World Food Programme's Cash-Based Transfer, implemented with LHI.

"I thought it was a lie. But when I finally received the ₦75,000 WFP Cash-Based Transfer support, it felt like someone had given me one million naira."

With her children, Murja invested in food supplies (rice, beans, cooking oil and soya beans) to start a small food-selling business, building on an idea her son had years earlier.

Today Murja sells food from morning until evening and saves weekly with a Village Savings and Loan Association. She is moving forward one meal, one sale and one hopeful day at a time.

From Cultivating Resilience, Vol. 1.