Hi, I’m Lydia, a 32 year old single mother of two kids, and I reside in the local suburb of Jinja – Uganda. I have a strong desire for making shoes . Due to my desire for this vocation , I enrolled in a training for making shoes. It wasn’t an easy journey, but I had to do it, to be an independent woman, and a wonderful mother to my kids.
I trained consistently, and focused on the target ahead. I didn’t allow myself to be swayed by the obstacles that came my way. Later on, my hardwork paid off, and I started my first shoe project in 2018, right after I completed my training
Asides my desire for this vocation, my main objective is to be self employed, in order to generate income for my self, and also to secure the future of my kids. I want to give my kids the kind of life I didn’t get to enjoy, I want to see them do better and greater than me, by providing all the amenities they need.
So far, I’ve achieved a quarter of my goals, and I know and believe that I will achieve all. This project has made me a living testimony of God’s faithfulness, the income I generate from my shoe project facilitates the basic needs of my family. As a business woman, my major asset is “people”, people with different characters and attitude. This has exposed me to new set of people that are beneficial to my business.
I have encountered lots of challenges. Apparently, there is no business without a challenge, in fact, life itself is full of challenges. This pandemic really hit my business hard, the price of materials used in making shoes went exceedingly high, and people in this region prefer cheap things.
Also, producing shoes in large quantities has always been difficult. I have no apprehentice or co worker. Making and producing shoes myself, takes a long time to complete the orders I receive.
My future aspiration is to amass a larger labor force to enable completion of orders in time. Delivering orders to my clients on time, would definitely make them pleased with my business. Also, addition of other commodities asides shoes, to widen the variety of sales and production. Other commodities like wallets, table clothes and other handmade crafts.