The challenges to build a life and being a successful person in this competitive world we are living are outnumbering our hope and patience. But the enthusiasm to build a life and to be successful from nowhere to somewhere is the power of hope and patience where it all nourishes us every day.
Our existential desire and obsession to achieve our goals are achievable through hard work, patience, and staying focused regardless of our age or where we are in our life.
As an example of how hope and patience help us through our hard time is the real-life experience of Lailuma whom she has gone through a hard time to achieve her goals. Lailuma with her family of nine people, her husband a farmer, three daughters, and five sons are living in Dalkhaki village of Samangan province. Lailuma and her family has gone through hard time in the recent years where her husband had to migrate outside of the country to provide for his family of nine members. Despite going through one of her toughest lifetimes, they also had a property loan to pay back.
With the outbreak of Coronavirus countries around the world announced lockdown and her husband could not find any job opportunity. Meanwhile, Lailuma with her eight children were left alone and no-one was there to support them. She was the only one who should feed her children and take care of them.
During this hard time, Lailuma didn’t hesitate to do laundry for people, farming, tailoring and handicrafts to feed her children. Her real power was her hope and patience as she was facing her life’s challenges.
Lailuma says, “We were living in difficult time and I wanted to help my husband in financial issues to pay off our loan. I was earning some income through laundry, farming, tailoring and handicraft. The amount I was making was not enough to pay our loan and feed our children. We were going through an extremely challenging days of our life. Despite all challenges in our life, I was looking for a work to feed our children and pay off our loan we owed. I am very fortunate that I joined Aftab self-help group organized and funded by the Hand in Hand Afghanistan Organization’s initiative “Helping the people of Dalkhaki village of Samangan province, bounce back from Covid-19”. I completed poultry vocational skills training and received enterprise startup kit along with 25 layer chickens. Moreover, the Organization also helped us by providing food supplies in the hard time of winter and Corona-virus.”
Nowadays, the chickens lay up to 16-17 eggs per day and she sells them for AFN 8 each which brings her a monthly income of around AFN 4,000.
Most of the time she brings eggs to the city, hospitals, and shops to sell and earn income. “I could save AFN 15,000, 12000 and 8000 from eggs and each time I did something great from that money to extend my business”. Said Lailuma
Her hard work and struggles made her a successful woman. She increased the number of chickens from 25 to 28 pcs. She bought a small shop for her son and now she is helping her husband to pay off his loan.
Lailuma says, “I am really thankful from Hand in Hand Afghanistan and their donors providing us chickens, poultry tools and feed to start our own small layer poultry farm. My future plan is to expand the chickens from 28 to 40 pcs so that I could build a good future for my children.. Lastly, I want to say something for all women who are uneducated, and they think they could not support their families that never stop trying. Life is not easy we have to do something to make our life better and support our families as I am doing”.
Lailuma’s story tells us that hope and patience are what makes us strong to accept challenges and use the opportunities to bring changes in our daily life with the help of others.
