A mother of six in a country ravaged by AIDS, Annet also takes care of seven additional children – orphans from her extended family and community. Resourceful and hard-working, she nonetheless struggled to provide for all 13 kids with her small income from a water purification and distribution business.

When a friend told Annet about Action For Children, endPoverty.org’s local partner, she applied for a small loan of about $150 and used the seed money to purchase polythene bags to package the water she purified and a bicycle for distributing her final product. She quickly repaid the first loan and applied for a second, then a third. Her loans allowed her to expand and streamline her business.

Today, Annet’s business is thriving and she has been able to send all of her children to school. Three of them recently graduated from vocational programs with degrees in Computing Studies, Catering and Business Management. She speaks of them with tremendous pride and joy: “I have given these children a life of their own. They can now take care of themselves and look out for the less fortunate in our suffering community.”