How Shafiqa’s little shop is bringing happiness to her community
Shafiqa was married at the age of 20. She lives near Jalalabad with her husband and six children. Shafiqa and her family have lived in poverty for years, barely making ends meet. Her husband was a daily wage worker, and his earning weren’t sufficient to support the family.
They tried to start a small business to help the family income, but due to lack of capital they were unsuccessful.
Then one day, a Zardozi team visited Shafiqa’s village. She heard about their programme and registered her name with the team in early 2011.
She attended the tailoring and business training with much dedication. She learned new designs as well as marketing strategies. She started her business small, stitching clothes for her neighbours and within the community. Eventually, she started to make a decent living out of the tailoring business.
This made Shafiqa more confident and allowed to dream big. “When I saw there was increasing competition in tailoring in her village, I asked myself what is it that this village needs that I can provide,” she said. “It was then I realised that there was no general store in the village and I could set one up,” she narrates with enthusiasm.
Zardozi loaned her 20000 Afs which she used as initial capital to open a small general store in her garden. She was an instant success. The villager and neighbours were happy to have convenient access to a store like that in their community. Women and children would purchase at Shafiqa’s store regularly. She stocked all the products that her neighbours would initially have to travel miles to get access to.
On personal front, Shafiqa and her family are doing financially better than they have in years, and are living a very comfortable life.