Giving Compass' Take:

• News Deeply tells the story of Violet Babu and Eunice Awino, two Kenyan women who were tired of the traditional work offered to women and decided to flip the gender roles. Now, Babu and Awino have built their own successful fishing business together.

• How can we support more women entrepreneurs in Africa and other parts of the world? NGOs should take a closer look at how female-owned businesses can help us achieve gender equity on a global scale.

• Learn about the program empowering women in Kenya through nutrition education.

It’s a calm, breezy morning at Dunga beach on the shores of Lake Victoria, and the scene is typical for an area that runs on its fishing industry. The men are either repairing their nets or setting off for their next catch, while the women cook meals for their customers, mainly hungry fishermen, or clean dishes to get ready for the next meal.

At one workshop, under a eucalyptus tree, just like in workshops all over the area, a group of men are building a new boat. But there’s an unfamiliar element to this scenario: the bosses carefully inspecting the work are two women.

Unlike most women working on the shores of Lake Victoria, who make their money through supplementary services like cleaning fish or cooking, Violet Babu, 30, and Eunice Awino, 26, manage a set of fishing boats, carving a niche for themselves in the male-dominated sector.

When they decided to set up their fishing business, Babu and Awino didn’t have enough money to buy even one boat. They considered borrowing from a bank, but worried about losing their homes and assets if they defaulted on the loan. Instead, Babu and Awino started putting aside money from their day jobs, like many other women do daily across the region. A survey published in March 2017 by the Graça Machel Trust, an advocacy organization, shows 71 percent of women entrepreneurs in East Africa use their own savings to start their businesses.

Read the full article about the women in Kenya's fishing industry by Wesley Lang’at at News Deeply.