Amina Mohamed Mohamud, 30, has turned her life around with a rare business for a Somali woman, producing metal and wooden furniture and construction items at her centre in the northern town of Bosaso.
She opened Gashan Centre producing doors, beds and chairs and other items for offices and homes after graduating with a degree in human resource and failing to find a job during a four-year hunt.
“I am a businesswoman now, whereas before I was just searching for jobs which was very frustrating. I applied for many different job vacancies and often I when I thought I had got the job, they would reject me,” she said.
Amina’s earnings from the business of $500 a month support her family of three children as well as her parents. Her husband works as a taxi driver in Bosaso. She works in the afternoons and focuses on the children and household in the mornings.
“In the future I would like to set up a bigger company so that people no longer have to depend on imported items,” she said.
She is the only woman in this business, which she started with $700 from her relatives and a $2,000 bank loan. She is working to pay off the debt within six months.
The company has also opened new opportunities for eight young employees, including Abdullahi Abdi Shooble. On his $400 a month salary he can support his family of five and two elderly parents. He is much better off than when he was a porter offloading goods from trucks earning just $4-5 on odd days.
“I am one hundred per cent happy with my work! Human life is all about progress,” Abdullahi told Radio Ergo.
One of Gashan Centre’s customers, construction worker Abdilafit Yasir Mohamed, said he is pleased with the doors and window frames he purchased.
“I have been working in construction for a long time and I understand the products. I have taken many things from them and I have never seen any defects,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Amina hopes to set up more productions and sales centres and to create more local employment for young people.
