“Friendship is a beautiful thing that connects people in a loving way, even if there are differences between them in culture and traditions.” Ghadeer continues with a smile; “I was in school when I met Asmaa and ever since best friends”.
Ghadeer is a housewife, and her daily work as a housewife was her inspiration to start her business. Ghadeer explains: “I used to wash the carpet in my house and then put it on the balcony until it was dry, which was bothering my neighbors, and I used to tell my friend Asmaa about it and tell her how I wish if I had a machine that cleans and dries the carpet while it is in place”.
Ghaedeer and Asmaa knew about Madad Project, and Asmaa was the one who spread the word to Ghadeer about how the project aims at enhancing the skills of women in different areas in order to enhance their economic status by engaging into the labour market and starting their own businesses.
“Our biggest motive behind participating in this project is our desire to learn a vocation and start our own business, and because we were surrounded by other women who opened businesses” Asmaa said. They were engaged in the home maintenance vocational training, which is non-traditional sector for women although there’s demand on that vocation. “During the training we shaped the idea of our business and we built a business plan for a home-based dry cleaning, and we encouraged by the trainers and colleagues”.
Starting our business was challenging but a lot of fun, and they both discovered that they are great partners which increased their confidence in their selves and their business. “We learned the basics of home maintenance, which helped us learn to use machines and equipment. We also learned e-marketing and we have adopted it for advertising and we learned how to register our business and that helped us with registering our business as a home-based business” Ghadeer said.
“At first we rented a cleaning machine that cost 150 jod per month, and now we are aiming to buy a machine to make our work more sustainable. We faced various difficulties, including transportation, which was difficult until my husband witnessed the success of our project and then he started helping us with the delivery. Thus, we have overcome the culture of shame in our society when we started our business and as a home-based dry cleaning, and I was feeling confident because I was a graduate of BDC and it is a well know in my area” Ghadeer added.
Name: Ghadeer Hasan Al Masri
Region: Kufranjah-Ajloun
Age: 26
No of children: Two
Marital Status: Married
Nationality: Jordanian
Family breadwinner: Her husband
Name: Asmaa Ghneem
Region: Kufranjah-Ajloun
Age: 36
No of children: Three
Marital Status: Married
Nationality: Syrian
Family breadwinner: herself and her husband
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