{"id":42135,"date":"2017-11-29T20:56:42","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T01:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging21.finca.org\/uncategorized-en-ca\/brighter-business"},"modified":"2024-11-04T02:25:02","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T07:25:02","slug":"brighter-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finca.org\/en-ca\/brighter-business","title":{"rendered":"A Brighter Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every morning at 8 am, 45-year-old Josephine Nabyalu walks to the street corner outside her house to start her work day. The former teacher runs a small \u201ccanteen\u201d \u2013 a wooden shack with fresh vegetables, french fries and boiled corn for sale. When the sun begins to settle, she pulls out her BrightLife solar lamps and places them strategically throughout the stall to highlight her fresh produce. She continues selling to her neighbors, school children and passersby until the late evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hours are long, but Josephine doesn\u2019t complain one bit, as she knows her business is helping to support her family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She started her stall in 2010 in Wakiso, Uganda<\/a>, after she quit her job as a nursery school teacher because of the low salary. She needed more income to help pay for her three children\u2019s higher education. Thankfully, her sister, Harriet, introduced her to FINCA. With her first loan of 50,000 shillings ($22 USD), Josephine was able to purchase a few vegetables to sell at her stall. Today, her loan size has grown to 1,000,000 shillings ($280 USD) which she uses to stock her stall with tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, corn and more. Slowly, Josephine started to save money for her kids\u2019 university fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"josephine