unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/23/89)
MALAWI: Portrait Of A Woman Entrepreneur
Blantyre, September 21, 1989 (AIA/Melinda Ham) Thandiwe Kaime
sits at her foot-pedalled sewing machine working on the
sleeves of a pink bridesmaid's dress on the front porch of
her mud-brick house in Bangwe township outside Blantyre.
Behind her hang the brightly coloured skirts and blouses she
finished yesterday. Kaime is one of only a handful of
established women entrepreneurs in Malawi. The Development of
Malawi's Traders Trust (DEMATT), the sole small business
advisory service, says that less than 10 percent of its
clients are women.
Most women take up businesses not out of choice, says DEMATT,
but out of economic necessity - although 30-year-old
Kaime's case seems especially dramatic.
She previously worked as a cashier in a bank in Blantyre for
10 years. Her employers accused her of stealing money from
another cashier and fired her.
"When I was at work some security people went to my house,
interrogated my children and rummaged through all my
possessions," she says.
"Then the police took me and kept me in a cell for two
nights. They had no evidence so they had to release me," she
continues. "I was so furious I decided to take the bank to
court. I knew I was innocent. Also they had invaded my
privacy and I wanted compensation."
She is suing the bank for K8,000 (CDN $3,484) in damages but
the case has still not come up in court.
In the meantime Kaime, her husband and three children could
not survive on his meagre salary alone so she began making
dresses. She already owned a sewing machine and had sewed
as a hobby for many years. Last April, Kaime took out a loan
of K1,800 (CDN $850) from the Small Enterprises Development
Organisation of Malawi (SEDOM), the only financial
insititution that will give a loan to a woman without a male
guarantor, and bought enough material to start a tailoring
business.
"By being my own boss, I have grown really fast mentally,"
Kaime says.
"When I worked at the bank I knew if I spent all my money
I would still have another pay check the following month. If
you spend all your money when you are running your own
business, you are grounded. You don't have the security of
being an employee."
Kaime sews about eight dresses a week. Some clients buy these
from her house. But for many hours every week she also walks
and takes buses to the surrounding townships with bundles of
dresses and baby clothes under her arms.
Occasionally Kaime also visits the tea estates where she
sells to the women tea pickers and factory workers.
"Living so far from the urban areas, these women rarely see
well-tailored dresses," she grins. "My dresses sell so
fast there. More than 20 can go in an afternoon. Some
women even starve themselves to save money to buy one."
Kaime has had problems attracting male customers. She knows
how to make trousers and suits but she says: "Men prefer to
buy from men". Her husband has been very supportive of her
efforts, unlike some other women whose husbands will not even
permit them to start a business.
Like most women in Malawi, Kaime still has the sole
responsibility for all the housework, preparing food, washing
clothes, and caring for her children.
"It's hard for me to find enough hours in the day. I have to
squeeze everything in". She does most of her chores by
lamplight several hours before sunrise or after sunset.
Kaime says her business is profitable and she can now afford
to send her children to school (education is not free or
compulsory in Malawi) and is building a bigger house.
She also wants to expand her business by hiring a tailor to
work for her and buying another sewing machine as well as
knitting and embroidery machines. She says she will finance
these from the money she expects to win from her court case.n
"That is my dream," she admits, as she looks around her
little house strewn with scraps of coloured cloth and half-
finished clothes. "Maybe I am just building palaces in my
head."
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* Origin: AlterNet, Node1 (Opus 1:163/113)
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