For Pauline Shitenge, 24, life of his family is not the same after acquiring entrepreneurship and management skills through the support of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) supported Women Entrepreneur Development and Gender Equality (WEDGE) programme.
Pauline, who lives with her husband and her baby girl at Ituha area in Mbeya City, was in a soap manufacturing business that she says did not earn her enough to cater for the welfare of her family.She completed her primary school education in 2002 and joined CARITAS in 2004 for a certificate in tailoring.
In 2005, she joined Kituo cha Huduma Majumbani Mbeya (KIHUMBE) for training on soap making using ‘mbosa’ oil, and her life began to change for the better.In 2008, she participated in entrepreneurship training that was organized by the Federation of Associations of Women Entrepreneurs Tanzania (FAWETA) -Mbeya bramch and sponsored by the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (TCCIA) -Mbeya and ILO.
The training had double impact on her life; the entrepreneurship skills and financial capital.Just after training, she decisively bought sewing machine worth of 81,000/- using savings from per diem amounting to 250,000/- that was paid to her as a participant.
With the sewing machine, she started tailoring business and applied the skills she acquired more than three years ago from CARITAS. That was a big change in her life as she was just staying at home without doing any income- earning activity.
Through entrepreneurship skills, she managed her business well and eventually accumulated enough savings that she invested in soap making business. Through soap business, she got herself opportunity for applying soap making skills obtained from KIHUMBE. She has been producing bar soaps and toilet soap using ‘mbosa’ oil.
With such diversification of business her income became more stable as they are both seasonal business with low and peak seasons. Now, she is earning about 55,000/- per month from soap business and about 65,000/ - per month from tailoring business.
Pauline is optimistic with the soap business because, she says, people like her soap products as they are made of natural ingredients which make user skin soft and have no side effects on users and the environment.
Pauline is still facing challenges especially on sourcing of raw materials for soap making as are not easily available. She also faces challenges in managing credit sales of her soap products as “customers don’t pay on time. I have allowed them to pay in installments but they don’t honour their promise, she said.
She considers market for soap products as important factor for her business to grow, but she does not make enough money to meet costs for exhibitions and trade fairs where she could show case her products. Despite the hurdle, she says her family benefits a lot as she can support her husband in providing basic needs such as food, clothes, house rent, paying school fee for her young sister and supporting her mother who is dependent on her.
She has also trained other 6 girls on soap making at Jacaranda area, in the city but they have not yet started any business because they are lacking capital.“I would urge fellow young women to learn and share entrepreneurship skills so they can improve their income and eventually their lives through self employment” she said.
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