Mapalo 1404 Group

Mapalo 1404 is a group of four women based in Central Province. In the local bemba language, Mapalo means blesssings. Three of the women are married while one is single. Between them they have 37 children, aged 2 to 26. Some of the women trade in poultry, while some are engaged in growing vegetables and maize, these are among the most common commodities in their community. The reason the women started their businesses was because they wanted to secure their own financial independence .

Alice stands as a testament to the power of grit and strategic planning. What started as a backyard project with just 75 chicks has been transformed into a thriving poultry enterprise that supplies dressed and undressed chickens to shops across towns in the Central Province. She is 40 years old, married, and the mother of two children. She also cares for her orphaned nephew.

Alice didn’t start with a massive inheritance or a corporate background. Her journey began with a simple observation; the local demand for fresh and affordable protein was consistently outstripping supply while many saw the challenges of rising feed costs and unpredictable weather due to climate change experienced in Africa. Alice saw a gap in the market - and the success of Alice’s flock is not just measured in profits, but in the impact it has had on her family and the local community.

The income from her poultry business has allowed her to send her children to school, although her dream is to see her children go to better schools in the near future. With her portion of the loan, she wants to buy more feed and vaccines for her chickens. The rest of the group members plan to invest in their businesses by buying more stock.

The Microloan Foundation, Lendwithcare's local partner in Zambia employs a unique 'centre' model for lending to female entrepreneurs. A centre comprises several sub-groups which share the same name as the centre. As such, you may have seen similarly named group loans from Zambia all belonging to the same centre. In this system, each woman is individually responsible for repaying her loan, but the group offers mutual support by assuming overall responsibility together.