Allensia Garab – Namibia

Allensia Garab – Namibia


Date: November 30, 2015
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Allensia Trading Enterprise is a source of livelihood for a gender based violence survivor

“My dream is to become a real business woman and employ more people”

Allensia Garab is a married woman and a mother of five. She is engaged in manufacturing and selling. She makes clothes for men and women and also bakes traditional biscuits and wedding cake. Her business is located in Outjo and operates from her home and her immediate customers are all residents of Outjo. According to her she never went to school to learn her business but emulated her mother since her mother was also a seamstress. She believes that her business is profitable and it has the potential to be replicated. She started this work to empower herself and be in a position to support her family. Allensia had a dream that her business will one day grow and employ more people because she feels that unemployment is too high in her home town.

Despite making clothes, baking traditional biscuits and cake, she also provides baking classes for the community members at an affordable price. Her life has changed because she has money to support her family. She is planning to expand her business to other regions in order to serve more people. Allensia appreciated attending the Gender Links (GL) entrepreneurship training programme because she has gained knowledge of business management and today she can do her budget, planning and market research and her level of English has improved. She is happy about the environment she operates in since she does not have any competition and her business is progressing very well.

In order to improve the productivity of her business, she opted to hire one person who assists her with much of the job, especially selling finished products and washing bakery dishes. She has managed to register this person with the social security commission and is paying her a reasonable salary.

She registered her business with the ministry of trade and industry, ministry of finance and social security commission and she has all the registration certificates which allow the business to operate legally. She anticipates that one day her business will extend to other towns because sometimes she supplies cakes to weddings in other towns and there is a huge demand for them. Transport remains a problem.

Allensia maintains that her life has completely changed and she enjoys her marriage more than before when violence was an issue. She is happy that her husband fully respects her. She also appreciated being empowered by Gender Links through the training and the summits that she attended where she was able to learn from others how they operate their businesses.

Allensia is a survivor of gender based violence and a driver of change because she empowered herself and set an example for others who could be inspired by her skills. She is a member of a women’s support group. It is a group of women who are raising awareness about gender based violence in Outjo. She is a well-known and respected person in her community because of the change she is bringing.

Allensia is looking for a plot where she can build her own place of business and she intends to secure a loan at the bank which she can afford to pay back. She is currently working with the municipality of Outjo on the issue of land and she hopes her dream will come true soon. She is operating from her home and it is too small as she uses the kitchen.

Allensia won two awards at the national summit and this motivated her a great deal. She knows that one thing she will never forget is when she travelled to Johannesburg to attend the regional summit in 2014. She met different people and learnt a lot from them. She insists that even though she did not win it was such a memorable experience that it has boosted her morale in doing business

 


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