by Margaret Hirsch
As many of you know my goal in life is to ensure that every woman, especially every African woman is financially independent. A financially independent woman has choices. She has money in the bank, she can live where she wants, she can drive the car she wants to drive, he can educate her children and, she can please herself. There is a old saying: "If you please yourself, at least you are pleasing someone.”
“The cure for poverty has a name, in fact: it’s called the empowerment of women.”— Anonymous quote
How often, as a normal woman, do you do your best to make everyone else happy and in the end no one is happy - least of all you!! What I teach is that every woman has a skill, be it baking, sewing, dancing, teaching, cooking, cleaning or whatever it may be.
You have a skill and the way to cure poverty is to not only utilise your skill to ensure that you become financially independent but to teach other women so that they in turn can become financially independent.
Then there are others who excel at baking from ordinary cakes to beautiful wedding cakes - they start small and then just grow! And there are others who did a crash course on being a nail technician and now have dozens of women working for them in nail salons. My friend Margaret who is a hairdresser, was retrenched and started her own salon which is hugely successful! My friend Vanessa who turned her empty-nest home into a successful BnB! The lady I met in Côte d'Ivoire who started making her own jam and now is the biggest jam supplier in the country.
The best bit is that I am not the only woman to think on these lines, My friend Regine le Roux starting crocheting as a hobby during the Covid-19 lockdown, where empty bread bags were being repurposed and crocheted into beautiful shopping bags. Now not only is she helping the planet she has also created an opportunity for women to make extra pocket money and be able to put bread on the table by making beautiful functional products.
So many women are in bad relationships or situations and just stay there as they doubt themselves - they wish they could leave and start their own business and their own life but keep getting lulled back by the fear of being on their own, little realising that they could do so much better on their own and become role models to their children
The success stories of women entrepreneurs are endless - for a real dose of inspiration join Lionesses of Africa where my friend Melanie Hawken has the most incredible African women entrepreneurs on her platform.
There are a lot of successful women out there, carving a life for themselves and helping others along the way - I hope today will be the day you join us!
Much Love,
Margaret Hirsch