One Who Learns, Will Eventually Teach
Participating in the Mercy Corps led RIPA – North programme, and its predecessor PRIME, livestock traders like Muna have supported themselves and other women pastoralists earn a sustained income and develop preparedness to shocks and stresses. Muna’s journey as a small livestock trader near Kebribeyah Town, Somali Region, started several years ago. As a mother of 8, Muna and her husband have worked hard to provide a life for their children. Realising the potential to supply livestock from Kebribeyah to other markets, Muna ventured into the then male dominated business of livestock trading. Before her partnership with Mercy Corps, Muna was working at a much smaller scale, selling an average of 198 sheep and goats per month.
Since her partnership with RIPA-North, Muna's business has been transformed. In just nine months, her sales increased more than four-fold to 1,093 sheep and goats per month, and she has diversified her business to include dairy cows. Muna’s resilience story shows how the training and matching funds she received from Mercy Corps transformed her business. As a show of camaraderie, she works women pastoralists to help them set up goat aggregation businesses, and economically empowered as decision makers in their households.
