Silona
2025
After living with obstetric fistula for a year, 25-year-old Silona received treatment at our Fistula Care Centre in Malawi. Since then, her life has taken a remarkable turn.
Through our income generation programme – delivered with support from UNFPA Malawi and the Embassy of Iceland in Lilongwe – Silona was able to set up a tailoring business at home. Her hard work and determination are paying off.
So far, Silona has made over MK 440,000. She’s used this income to:
- Buy two pigs worth MK 130,000
- Purchase three bags of maize worth MK 120,000
- Invest in household essentials and farming supplies
- Save MK 50,000 in the village bank
- Repair her sewing machine
She earns a daily income making and selling reusable pads, clothes and bags – between MK 8,000 and MK 16,000, depending on the season.
Silona and her husband have also established a vegetable garden, using some of her profits to start a small farming business. They’ve already earned MK 55,000 selling produce in the community.
With her earnings, Silona is supporting her household – and dreaming bigger. she hopes to expand her business to include shoes and tomatoes and one day buy land and build her own brick home with a tin roof.
Silona’s journey from healing to thriving is a powerful reminder that when women are given the tools to rebuild, they uplift everyone around them.
