By Dudu Nxele | Project Leader
Patricia is one of the Phetoho entrepreneurs, she attended the entrepreneurs’ skills development training in 2014 and started selling clothes immediately. She recalls always having the entrepreneurial spirit but didn’t know how to start. When she started selling clothes she saw that this could potentially provide her and her family some much needed income as her husband who has since passed away in August 2015 had been battling an illness until he could no longer work anymore and was forced to take early retirement. This meant no monthly income for Patricia’s family as he was the sole breadwinner. At the time Patricia’s two youngest children had just started university and were depending on their father’s income to pay the tuition fees.
Patricia says she thought to herself after her husband could no longer work, that it was up to her now to start providing for the family and keep her two children in university as that was the only way for a better life for all of them. She decided after attending the training to buy a few clothes to sell and see if she could indeed make a living out of this. To her surprise she had sold all the clothes she had in one day and more than doubled the money she used to buy the clothes. That day she realized that her children didn’t have to drop out of university and she was now in a position to take her care of her family even though her husband was not able to work.
She has been actively buying and selling clothes and has even taken on a role of mentoring new entrepreneurs by motivating and sharing ideas with them. Patricia’s son will be graduating in 2016 and landed himself a job in August 2015 at one of the local banks and is now pursuing to further his studies and become a chartered accountant. All of this has been made possible because of an opportunity that was presented to Patricia at a time she most needed help.
Even though her husband has passed away she is confident that she will be able to survive financially and carry on where her husband has left off. “I am so grateful for the opportunity that Phetoho gave me, I am now able to put bread on the table for my family” Patricia says.
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