“If we work hard despite the
type of job, success is guaranteed.”
My name is Elifnesh and I
was born in the western part of Ethiopia. Because I was born in a rural area, I
don’t exactly know how old I am. My families didn’t care to send me to school
since the society in that rural area didn’t believe that educating a girl
benefits her or anyone in the community.
I went to Addis Ababa to be able to financially
support my family and got hired as a house maid and in 1978 , I married a guy I
knew from the textile business I started and we started living together. I gave
birth to eight children. Even though, I raised
my children with the support of my textile business and ‘Equb’ (a traditional scheme
of saving money in a group) I failed to raise them properly and our living
standard declined day by day.
It was while I was in such a situation that I
heard about WISE opening an office in my area. I looked for the office, got
myself registered and took a business skill training. Although, my job didn’t reward
me with the capital I needed, I believed the training I took would get me a
better life and so dared to take a 500.00 birr ($50) loan to expand my textile
business. I used to sit in the sun for the whole day and so built a plastic
shield over my head. I gave back the money I took from the loan on schedule and
took consecutive loans afterwards still keeping on paying the money within schedule
so I became profitable.
I took eleven different
trainings provided by WISE. The trainings I took not only thought me planning,
saving and sharing job experience but also how to apply them in real life.
Before I took the training, I was more of a spender than a saver. I spent huge
amount of money to make my kids happy during the holidays especially well
celebrated in my area and culture. But now I am leading and managing my life
with well executed plan. Now I save more money to compensate for the years I
spent much and use my savings to support my children who are now in
universities. I also used to stay home during holidays but now do my job for
profit. The marketing training I took from WISE made me an expert in treating
my customers well which has contributed to my success and profit. Currently, I
have taken a loan of birr 36,000 ($ 2000) in eight rounds and have saved 27,000
birr ($1500) in my account.
In the future, I plan to
stick to my business and expand it further to have an even better life. My
message to all unemployed women is “if you work hard regardless the type of work you do, you will definitly become successful and be able to live a better life.”
Women in Self Employment (WISE) is one of the four partner institutes of the African Centers of Excellence (ACE) for Women's Leadership program run by the Institute of International Education (IIE) , Ethiopia Office.
For more on IIE , ACE or WISE please follow the links below.
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