HER Financial Freedom Program
With HER Lab established in West Pokot, Global Give Back Circle turned to the thousands of rural women living in the surrounding communities, many earning less than $2 a day. Demanding household responsibilities mean they cannot take a year to study at HER Lab. Many were married young and have five or more children by the age of 21. They still hold dreams of financial security, respect in their communities, and an education for their children that they themselves never had.
The partnership
In 2024, Suze Orman entered a transformational partnership with Global Give Back Circle, providing seed capital, vision, and strategic thinking to launch the program. It takes a holistic approach to a rural woman’s journey to financial freedom across four connected parts: a women-managed savings and lending platform, experiential workshops for self-discovery and personal empowerment, financial literacy and business development training, and a women’s cooperative enterprise offering scalable jobs.
How it works
The program builds a woman’s financial standing from the inside out. It begins with her own sense of worth and capability, then gives her the tools and the collective to act on it. More than 700 rural women are now members, saving and borrowing through their own registered SACCO and convening three times a year at HER Lab for all-day “Suze Workshops” designed to shift how they see their own power. Through small loans, members run businesses such as poultry farming and beadwork. Because the savings and lending platform is owned and managed by the women themselves, financial confidence built in one woman spreads through the group and into her household.
The impact so far
72%
Of members have started or expanded a small business
59%
Save consistently every month
82%
Are teaching their children about money
77%
Now talk openly about money with their husbands
Women's Cooperatives
A woman working alone in an arid or semi-arid community runs into limits quickly: little access to buyers, no leverage to negotiate, and all the risk on her own shoulders. Women-led cooperatives change that equation, letting women share risk, bargain together, and build economic standing as a group rather than one by one. Global Give Back Circle is bringing this model into the HER Lab ecosystem, and the work is progressing on two fronts.
The Approach
The work is phased and evidence-based, moving from trust-building and governance formation through to market integration and long-term sustainability, guided at every stage by participants’ own perspectives and needs. The goal is cooperatives that are resilient, well-governed, and built to endure beyond program support.
West Pokot Value Chain: Chamomile
The West Pokot Women Farmers’ Cooperative is being established with chamomile production as its flagship enterprise, supplying Melvins Tea, a Nairobi-based tea blending company that has committed to buy all the tea the cooperative can produce. Chamomile was selected through a value chain study designed to identify enterprises that are both commercially viable and grounded in what women in the region already know and grow. The crop is well suited to West Pokot’s climate, and with chamomile tea demand surging while supply runs short worldwide, these women are positioned to fill a real market gap.
Kajiado Value Chain: Dairy Goat
In Kajiado, a parallel value chain analysis is underway, with a goat dairy cooperative identified as a strong entry point. Rooted in Maasai women’s existing knowledge, it is positioned to generate income, build collective assets, and support financial independence for women across the community.