From Begging to Business

  Written by: Aqsa Sediqi

Those women, who are illiterate or have no one to work outside the home are facing more problems but some of them find the solution.

AEPO’s writer/producer had a trip Badghis province and there he has talked to woman in Qala-e-Naw city about her activities.

The woman says: “we were living in one of our neighboring countries and 6 years ago we came back to Afghanistan. My husband married another woman and sold all the commodities of the home and left me alone with my 6 small children. As I have no many to fulfil my children’s school needs, I discloded all of them from school. At the beginning, my sons were collecting spoiled anions and potatoes from the garbage and I was cooking them. Later, I started to clean pistachio and get a small amount of money. My sons were going to shrines if they could find some edibles.

One day my sister came to my house and when she saw our miserable life, she took us to her house. I started work as a cleaner in a hotel. In the hotel, a woman told me about a women bazaar in Qala-e-Naw city. I went that bazaar and talked to the owner of the market. I borrowed 5000 Afghanis from one of our neighbors and I opened a grocery booth in the women bazaar. I paid the loan back and now I am happy with my life and I have also enrolled my two children in the school.”

Honesty in Business:

AEPO’s writer/producer has talked to a shopkeeper, Abdul Qadeer, a resident of Kabul city about the benefits of truth in business.

Abdul Qadeer says: “I have a cosmetic shop and have more customers than other shopkeepers. The only cause for my success is my truth and honesty. When I buy any cosmetic to my shop, I check its quality first and then I tell the truth about it to my customers. I do not sell expire items in my shop. When a customer purchases an item from me and if she/he comes for the second time, I ask about the quality of the item that she/he had bought. If she/he complains from the quality, I would never bring that item again to my shop.”