Catherine Marigu

My name is Catherine Marigu. I was born at Gakwegori Village Embu County on 20 October 1996. I am a forth born in a family of seven. I started my studies in year 2003 at New Apostolic Church Kangaru Nursery School. In 2004 I joined D.E.B Kangaru primary school for my primary education and sat for my K.C.P.E in 2010 where I scored 267 out of 500 marks. In 2017 I joined St Michael secondary school  and later on transferred to Kangaru Day School due to lack of boarding fees in 2012. In 2013 I had to drop out of school to go find money to cater for my school fees because my mom was hospitalized. After the struggles I managed to get school fee and went back to school. I sat for my K.C.S.E in year 2014 where i scored a D+ mainly due to absenteeism and emotional instability. I stayed back at home for one year and later on i got a job as a house help. I worked very hard and my boss was pleased with my work and paid for me to study computer packages at Patmos Computer College. With the savings I got from my job, i decided to join Walton School to study Hospitality Course but unfortunately I again dropped out when lost my job.

I  stayed at home from  2016 to  2018 when my  friend told me about the CAPYEI program, requirements before enrolling, what it does, where it is located. I visited Embu center to know more. I met hospitable facilitators who welcomed me and gave detailed information about CAPYEI. They informed me on the dates for interviews. I enrolled for batch 6 on August 2018. The 1st 7 days we did life skills training where I learnt about how to improve my self-esteem, how to solve conflicts, how to improve my communication skills and how to make informed decisions. I took hospitality course. I learnt a lot form food production, Service, stores, front office and housekeeping.  Apart from being a hospitality student have acquired skills from Entrepreneur – book keeping, saving, money management, business planning, sales & marketing  and basic IT.

After CAP I decided to open my auto spares shop at Githimu market. I started my auto spare shop with a capital of 10000 that I had saved. I sale Motorcycle spare parts and also do basic motorcycle repairs and servicing. I have employed 2 mechanics to work in my shop.My target customers are Boda boda operators. I market my business through word of mouth, social media and posters. Monthly I make between Ksh 21000- 26,000. Currently I am in the process of stocking my second shop. My main challenge is because I am female most male find I hard to believe in my business and high transport costs. My future plans is to do basic automobile course and later open more shops in order to employ youths in my shop

Thanks to MasterCard Foundation for bringing such a helpful program to help us as needy youths and also thanks to my facilitators for dedication and ensuring I received the best.