Josephine’s story: Debt

Business Daily

BBC

Business

4.4 • 816 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2021

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Josephine is a single mother of four in Kibera, the sprawling slum in Nairobi, Kenya. At the beginning of the pandemic she was working as a cook, but soon lost her job, and when the BBC's Ed Butler spoke to her a year ago her situation was dire.

In this episode, the third of a short series about Josephine and Kibera, we'll hear how Josephine's efforts to feed her family during the Coronavirus pandemic were further imperilled by a different virus, malaria. We'll also hear how the cost of her food stall, hospital bills and her children's needs sent Josephine further into debt. Local organiser Kennedy Odede describes how in fact consumer debt has rocketed in Kibera during the pandemic, and Judith Tyson of the ODI explains what impact that will have long-term. After all that, a final calamity befalls Josephine's small business.

Producer: Frey Lindsay.

(Picture: A local artists makes and sells face masks made from cloth in the Kibera slum, Nairobi, on April 14, 2020. Picture credit: TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi there, welcome to Business Daily here on the BBC World Service. My name's Ed Butler, and I hope you're ready. It's time for the next episode of Josephine's story.
0:30.5	I was planning if I can get some funds. I can open a course and start selling vegetables,
0:37.1	onions and tomatoes. So I'm hopeful. I'm so much hopeful.
0:43.2	Last week we heard how Josephine Mucilwa, a single mother of four from Nairobi slums,
0:47.4	was last year planning to set up our own vegetable stall in her district.
0:51.8	Amidst a spiraling pandemic, it was proving a tough battle.
0:57.0	Yesterday I lost because they were rioting and looting,
1:00.2	like there's some shops which were looted.
1:03.9	I might be attacked, so I really fear.
1:06.2	What next for Josephine?
1:19.1	Episode 3, The Killer Virus. Good evening.
1:21.5	Today I haven't been feeling well.
1:24.7	I have not been going to my kiosk.
1:33.1	They found out that I have there. I have a lot of malaria in the blood.
1:46.3	So that they can know my health progress. That was the moment last May when Josephine Mucilwa revealed to me her own personal bombshell.
1:47.7	She had malaria.
1:51.0	As you can imagine, I was immediately on the phone to her.
1:54.3	Hi, Josephine. Hi, good to get through to you.
1:55.8	How are you doing?
2:00.5	Today, at least I'm fearing unwell.
2:02.5	You're feeling unwelled.
2:04.7	I got a message from you that you had malaria.
	...

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