“Aim High, Value Time and Convert it to Cash"
Bizunesh Geberehiwot is well known for
her excellent public speaking. She served in a Cooperative for six years
as a chairperson. Currently she is serving the same Cooperative as a member of the
Control Committee. She will tell us her story in short as follows:
My name is Bizunesh Geberehiwot. I was
born in February 1957 in Addis Ababa. I am the first
child for my parents. I completed elementary school and as I passed the 8th
grade national exam, I was transferred to Teferi Mekonen School. I met my husband when I was a 7th
grade student. At that time he was a famous sports man and a boxer. We met when
he was going for training and I was on my way to school. When we
first met, I was only 16 years old. Since I was in love with him I dropped out
of school and married him in accordance with the traditional ceremony.
I then gave birth to four children.
When I lived with my parents, I was a spoiled child and I was not able
to cope up with the changes and responsibilities I faced in a married life. My
husband’s monthly earning was 25 birr (~$2.5) . His salary was not sufficient to support
us. As a result it was inevitable for me to start working. I started working in
Nifas Silk Thread Factory. My pay was 75 cents (~$.075%) per day. Still our earning was
not balanced with our demands. In addition to working there, I used to take
different goods to the factory, sell them on credit and collect the money when the
employees collect their salaries. Though I did not have much money I managed to
send my children to school.
Since my husband stopped contributing
money for the household, I decided to go to the sports commission and ask for
my share from his salary and stopped waiting for him to give me money every
month. Unfortunately my husband passed away in 1999. After his death I was
faced with hardship. All my family members had passed away and nobody was by my
side. At that time it used to take two
years to authenticate a retirement benefit of one’s spouse. Through that period
of time we were in a difficult condition. On top of everything that was
happening to me, the factory I was working in was bankrupted and I was laid
off.
It was at this moment of hardship that
Women in Self Employment (WISE) came in to my life, in 2005. I never was fan of taking credit. However, before providing us with any credit, WISE gave us a
training on how to invest, save and manage money, and how to
develop speaking skills. With 55 members in it, the Saving and Credit
Cooperative I was a member of was established and I was elected as its first chairperson. After
that, I started noticing changes in myself. I felt as if I just started living.
Even though I knew how to read, I knew nothing about investment, profit, loss
and the value of my labor.
Based on the knowledge I have acquired
from WISE, I took my first round of loan. I started trading twice a week in a certain area in Addis. Currently I have goods worth over 6000 birr ($316) at my kiosk in Addis.
My son was unemployed hence I opened a
barber shop for him and now he is working successfully. My first child runs a beauty salon for women in the house I inherited from my parents. The
asset we have is estimated to be more than 80,000 birr ($4211) and we have created job
opportunities for three people.
In an Innovative and Viable Business Idea’s
Competition, which was organized by WISE in 2010, I competed and won a prize of birr 5000($263). I also received 200 ($10.5) and 300 birr ($15.8) awards from two competitions that
took place in our Cooperative. Before, I never had speaking skills; now I am
capable of speaking in public and sharing my experience to women like me in
different forums and events.
I do not have words to express what I
feel about WISE. I was a woman who used
to borrow money in exchange for my gold earrings. Today I am not only helping
myself but also others. I have savings in two different places, one in my
Cooperative, I save around 356 birr ($18.7) every week.
I am now responsible for controlling
the activities in my Cooperative. I make sure that no amount of money is
withdrawn from the Cooperative for a reason which is not convincing. I have
taken a 33,000 birr ($1737) loan and my saving in the association has reached 11,000
birr ($579). My long term plan is to purchase a vehicle. The message I want to pass on
to other women is that there is no way a woman who is trained and assisted by
WISE could not change if she is open-minded.
In addition, we women have to be strong and persistent in what we have
started. We need to aim high to achieve the end goal. We need to value time and
convert it to cash.
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 Intenrational Education (IIE), Ethiopia Office
For more on IIE , ACE or WISE please follow the links below.
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