Project brings prosperity

Twenty-seven-year-old Faiza Sheikh Musa*, married and a mother of six, is a beneficiary of the rehabilitation of Alhuda Primary School in Madina District in Mogadishu. She actively participated in the project from the beginning to the end. When the rehabilitation work started in November 2009, Faiza saw this as an opportunity to improve her income. She immediately started a small fruit-selling business targeting workers at the project site. She has saved a dollar a day for three months. Faiza plans to invest 78 dollars she has saved into a clothes business. She is currently engaged in taking care of her family as she makes plans for her new business. Faiza has good experience in the clothes business, having sold clothes in the open-air Bakara Market before the escalation of the war. “I lost my business during the war between the Ethiopian troops and the Islamic courts. When the market was bombarded, all of us ran away, leaving our wares behind,” she explains. From then on she stayed indoors, depending on her husband for upkeep. However, her problems only increased when their house was destroyed during the war. It forced her to run away from Hodan to Wadajir in Mogadishu, where she currently resides. Omar Sheikh, Faiza’s husband, has to wake very early each morning to fend for the family, including his aged mother-in-law. However, Faiza is optimistic that her business will soon lessen his burden. And she owes it to the project. “Though I was not employed by the project, still it improved my income. I no longer worry about the future like I did before. The money I saved seems so little, but if we invest it wisely it will make a lot of difference,” she says. This project was implemented under the Employment Generation for Early Recovery project through a local partner, Active in Development Aid (ADA).   *name has been changed