Challenging Work and Perseverance Beat Resource Limitation
Abdilahi possessed a low computer literacy with only basics and lacked a good understanding of how computer works and are used. He and his family members never owned a computer. The closest person who belonged to a computer was his friend’s sister who resides several kilometres away from where lives. His friends who attended the course influenced him to pursue the IT skills provided by Shaqodoon. He was unaware about his tech-talent. Although he was determined to acquire the IT skills, he was worried about the procedure of enrolling the course, requiring him to pass a competitive interview. “My curiosity and repeated questions I used to ask my friends get annoyed, mainly was concerned the course and how it can be enrolled” he said. Due to his limited experience of taking interviews, he failed the exam twice. “The failure of the enrolment in Hargabits had never disappointed me to pursue the future opportunity.” Fortunately, after a continuous follow up of the next admission, he was suddenly offered the opportunity to participate in the course filling a position withdrawn by a registered student. Despite his preference over classes in the main centre which its curriculum covers distinctive areas of IT with one year of study. However, he accepted the offer of a graphic design course which was intensive with 6 months of studying.
Guled who was his teacher and deputy manager of Hargabits said, “when I was interviewing him, he seems unserious and was not having a good reason to be registered for the 2019 or 2020 cohort. I assumed he would be the first person quitting from the course. Surprisingly, he never stopped calling me and I hesitantly decided to register for course. Abdilahi’s dedication and commitment proved my assumption untrue” the trainer said. He is now one of the trainees who got a job with the acquired skill.”
“Mohamud was once an employee earning only seventy to fifty dollars a month, but thankful to Allah, today he is an employer”
Mohamud used to earn monthly 700,000 SL shillings, reduced down to 500,000 the equivalent of $70 to $50 respectively although he had a university degree. He walked 10 kilometres a day to teach students at the primary and elementary school. Additionally, he taught afternoon students at the Madrassa. I remembered a Somali proverb which is similar to English one, “Hard work brings prosperity”. it inspired me to take a difficult decision. Mohamud left teaching for farming, and he had not relevant knowledge, experience, and capital to invest in the farm. He did not have pertinent knowledge to plant properly the land, especially making a nice straight row for planting crops. The only available resource he had was only by himself, working long hours for clearing, planting crops, and laying straight rows. His neighbour offered him a well filled of mud and cuttings to access groundwater. “My neighbour asked me a question, if he could remove mud and cutting from the well. If you could than use it.” By the time, he had at his disposal seventy thousand shillings the equivalent of about ten dollars, not enough money to plant crop in the farm and clear mud from the well. “I did all clearings by myself using simple tools of a pick and shovel with a bucket on a rope. I spent the $10 in planting cash crops and I had nothing left.” he said.
Mohamud received unexpected call from Shaqodoon which informed him that Arabsiyo community submitted his name. He stated, “I was offered the opportunity to participate in a thirty-day entrepreneurial training after clearing the interview.” He made significant efforts to take part the training which required him to travel forth and back to Hargeisa during the training days. “Mohamud informed me of his decision to withdraw from the training and his concern of losing the contest that would be secured an investment. It is my job is to coach the trainees, I successfully persuaded him to continue the training and to concentrate on the objective” Mohamud Harhub manager said. As a result of the training, he developed a business plan which was among the successful plans that fortunately won the investment. He was linked to a Premier bank, a local bank offering financial services and a bank account had been established for him. After lengthy due diligence procedure, Primer bank and Shaqodoon approved him loan of $ 5000 and grant of $ 3500. The investment was used to purchase water bump engines, seeds and plastic pipes watering the existing and newly established farm.
“I learned valuable lessons from the entrepreneurial training which have been used to formalize the management of the farm, schedule crop planting, planning crop harvesting and forecasting when the crops can be available throughout the season.” He practiced the obtained knowledge to optimize the use of his land, assigning locations to planting. Mohamud was once an employee earning only $70 to $50 a month, however, thankful to Allah, today he is an employer. “I could not afford to employ staff, or rent machines, so all activities had to be manually performed by me. However, my current role is now only managing the farm and the staff, and I do not do manual works anymore. “My situation is good per today employing five persons and generating good revenues from the two farms.” “I really pay five times more to my employees than I did earn with a schoolteacher. For the last three months, my employee made ten million shillings equivalent 1,170 dollars”.
Name: Mohamud Mohamed Farah
Project: Restore, building resilience in Northern Somalia
Donor: EU and Sida