Hameeda’s husband quit drugs because of her
Ms. Hameeda, a mother of 5 children, struggled through the hardships of helping her drug addict husband to recover, and to support her kids to live a better life. Hameeda’s life upended when she got married. Her husband would spend all of the home savings on buying drugs. She didn’t have enough money to afford meals let alone providing her children health care and an education. In 2014, when Hameeda started her journey with Zardozi, her first aim was to admit her husband to a rehabilitation center and cure his drug addiction.
“The only work that caught my eyes was tailoring. I thought I could excel my skills in this business area better. So I took some training and started to sew clothes for my neighbors and then slowly selling the clothes to near villages as well. I also received good orders from different shops with profitable prices,” says Hameeda.
Looking at her business experiences, profitability and operations method, Hameeda took the risk to do some investment. She bought readymade cloths and sold them to her relatives and villagers. She was surprised at making her life’s biggest amount of money on her own.
Hameeda also started to practice business the old way- exchanging clothes with goods. She says, “A lot of our people are poor; they could not afford my dresses. One day a friend asked me if she could exchange a dress for some fruits. This gave me an idea of selling my clothes both for cash and goods.” Bartering in her small village kept Hameeda’s business on track.
While telling us her story, Hameeda mentioned that one of the biggest achievements of her life was helping her drug addict husband to get well and stand firm beside her. Hameeda’s husband said, “I regret my bad habits, but now I want to make up for it. I help Hameeda in selling cereals, dried fruits and Qurot. Together we make very good profit from both sewing clothes and selling foodstuff which we get through bartering.”