Regina Regeto Garasiano
My name is James Regina Regeto Garasiano, I am a resident of Torit Center of Eastern Equatoria. I am married with three children and I lead my house hold were I also live with my younger brothers and extended family. Being the sole provider in my family has always been a very difficult task and ever since I came of age I have been struggling to make ends meet for my family.
The challenges that I have been facing are similar to those that other people in Eastern Equatoria are facing and in south Sudan in general. It has always been my dream to establish a reliable source of income for my family to depend on for livelihood. Watching your children go hungry and disease being an obstacle in the family, especially diseases that can be cured with medicine that is available, has been very painful. I have worked very hard for my family and started different businesses in order to ensure that there is food and education for all.
In the last years, about 3 years ago, I established a small bakery where I have been supplying bread to members of the community in Torit town. This business has done a little change in our lives. Due to many challenges that many business owners are facing, I have been stagnant for long and my business has not grown or expanded.
I first heard of this opportunity for an interest free loan from fellow business colleagues who received the loan in the previous phase and they seem to have improved tremendously compared to the condition of their business in the previous years. We decided to apply for this loan as a group of five business owners and requested for 20,000,000 which was approved in June.
When we received this money, I decided to improve the structure of the shop from which I have been making local bread for security and safety reasons. Then I also decided to buy variety of stock especially flour which I use for making bread. When I stocked my shop with all the ingredients for making bread, I started generating a lot of profit. Sometimes I even sell these the bread to neighboring counties whose restaurants have been making orders.
Now that I have capacity in stock and finances to deliver goods across the state, my profit margins have increase. Previously, I was making less that 400,000 ssp a month, however, currently I can make up to 1,000,000 ssp in a month. This has helped me to cater for food, rent, school fees and medication, at the same time I am able to save money both for the business and my family.
Society has always seen women as house wives and believed that we cannot look after business or even start one. I am really grateful to this opportunity because not only has it mobilized female business owners, but it gave priority to women in business. As I have been participating in programs related to this project, I have seen a huge number of women in attendance, especially in the business management training and mentorship. It is really inspiring to see organizations investing in our livelihood.
Traditionally, our roles have been restricted only to kitchen work and child bearing. Our capacity to run and manage a business has never been tested. We have been marginalized and denied education and business opportunities. I am really thankful to UNDP for ensuring that women participation was considered at the planning stages of this project and the young girls and single mothers are included so that they can build and improve their businesses.
At every stage as of the project from registration to loan disbursement, I have seen that partners to this project have insisted on women participation. This is a great initiative, because as most people have witnessed that the majority of the restaurants are owned by women and if they are not supported, they will not improve their business to basic standards of operation.
As a woman and a business owner, I am grateful for this golden opportunity that has been offered in this project. I would also urge the organizers of such activities to always encourage women participation especially in business. This program has improved my bakery significantly, now I am able to cater for my children, I even got myself a new home where I am staying with family. On top of that, the money that I got from the bakery, in the last six months, I have been able to save them and now I am planning to start a food distribution business.
In conclusion, I would like to appreciate the opportunity offered by the project in support of women groups, cooperatives and VSLAs. If these opportunities were to come yearly and women participation considered as it was in this project. Then majority of the women in Torit would greatly improve their livelihood and generally society would ban the destructive culture of auctioning and offering women for marriage.
