Makol Samuel Maker.
Personal background.
Makol Samuel Maker is aged 30 and currently living in Maker Kuei residential area in Rumbek Center, Lake State. He is married with three children and staying with his younger brother and three cousins including other members of the extended family.
To him life has always been challenging considering that he does not come from a privileged background and the current economic and financial situation in south Sudan has crippled his growth and progress. His family has always depended on him for food, shelter, clothing and security. These needs are very difficult to meet considering that he does not have a good paying job and stopped formal education in high school.Since then, He started a small grocery for food items which has been the main source of livelihood for him and his family.
The grocery has maintained his family and children, everyone has depended on him for all their needs including educating his children and younger siblings. Though the business has helped cater for a few services, it has been struggling for avery long time, sometimes he takes goods on loan, the prices keep changing and he does not have income to buy food items that will sell because those that have these food items need cash in advance. In order to make good plans for his business he needed cash in advance which was not readily available.
Financial support through the YEDCB-project.
Things started to change when he applied for loan that was being provided for the Youth of Lakes state by UNDP. They applied for 50,000,000 SSP as a group however only30,000,000 was approved for their group of five individuals.According to him, this amount of money came at the right time when he needed to purchase goods that were in demand at that particular time which was June of 2025. When hestarted selling these items, he made a lots of profits from them and managed to send his children to school and pay treatment for his brother who needed to travel to Juba for medication.
He never imagined that things will turn out this way, though things are not 100% easy and he cannot meet all the needs on time and on schedule. The opportunity provided by UNDP to apply for loan has created impact in his life allowing him to improve his business. He has also managed to make profits that he has not made in a very long time. Just between June and October, he made over 5 million south Sudanese pounds. And to calculate net profit, it would amount to around 3.6 million in just 3 months which is something he has not made in a very long time, or let’s say since he started doing business. Most of this success in family and business, he attributes it to the interest free loan service which was provided by UNDP. He now engages his wife and children in this business. According to him, they are now able to connect better with his family through the engagement that the business has provided.
Though the objective was to acquire loan and make more money to improve livelihood, this project has also connected families and made them happier through engagement. He sends appreciations to UNDP for this opportunity and hopesmore families and households can benefit from it, as his family has benefited. He believes that this program has changed and impacted his family both socially and financially and if more households in Lake state are included in this program, those that participate in cattle rustling or violent criminal activities will cease this behavior and turn to income generating activities.
His greatest fear has always been saving money especially for his family and be able to prepare for unforeseeable challenges like medical bills. When he took this loan he really hoped that the money they applied for is approved. To him, from the start this was an opportunity to transform his life and that of hisfamily. When the loan was approved, he worked less because the loan, has been doing most of the work. The mostimportant task was to plan and manage the resources with in the business so that he is able to pay back the loan.
The program did not only give loans, but also business management training which has been the land mark of success in his business. He has employed a lot of skills that they were taught. And he proudly says that now he is not worried and afraid of loses or even doing business. From the training, they have learnt to embrace failure and adapt to changes in order to succeed in business.
In conclusion, things have never been the same for him and his family after being involved in this project.
