09/10/2026
“We could have earned good money from that order.”
Sarah still remembers the international order her cooperative couldn't fill.
The customer wanted a design that required materials from Morocco. The women knew how to make it. They had a buyer ready to pay. But they couldn't get the supplies.
So they lost the order.
Sarah leads the Kalobeyei Women Handicraft Cooperative Society in Kenya, where more than 300 refugee and host-community women create beadwork for international customers.
Some orders run as high as 1,000 pieces. And every new design brings a new challenge: finding materials, covering upfront costs, and getting supplies to their workshop.
The women have learned to adapt. They source materials from the capital, Nairobi, arrange deliveries, and use customer deposits to start production. They've built a business that reaches across borders, even when the market doesn't make it easy.
But Sarah knows how much more they could do.
All week, we've shared stories of entrepreneurs navigating markets under pressure. Like Sarah, they're finding ways forward.
But their determination shouldn't have to carry the weight of broken supply chains, limited financing, and markets that are difficult to access.
What if we invested as much in making markets work as entrepreneurs invest in making their businesses succeed?
Next week, we'll take a closer look at how markets work in refugee and host communities, and the people and businesses that keep them moving.
