Pamela Madzukuture is a 32-year-old businesswoman from Homera Village in ward 13, Shurugwi District.

Pamela had toiled with the idea of starting her own business for far too long and only needed the extra motivation and push that the Motivated and Entrepreneurial Youth (MEY) Project offered. Through the project, she underwent the Hand in Hand Zimbabwe entrepreneurship trainings and acquired knowledge that she used to set up a retail shop.

She says she has no better word to describe her experience with Hand in Hand Zimbabwe’s intervention other than “Transformational” as she reflects on her past compared to her current status.

How she set up her enterprise

Pamela says unemployment, coupled with economic hardship and her over-dependence on her husband, kept them in debt continuously as she borrowed a lot from family, friends and neighbours in a bid to meet household basics demands.

Pamela’s fate however changed when she met the ward-based Enterprise Development Facilitator (EDF) for Hand in Hand Zimbabwe during a mobilisation exercise for new Youth Star Clubs under the Motivated and Entrepreneurial Youth Project. After joining the MEY project, Pamela and seven other women formed a Star Club called Tariro (which means Hope) and started receiving training and coaching on Entrepreneurship, Motivation and Health. From the knowledge and guidance, she received, she swiftly started her retailing business.

Success story

Pamela boldly testifies that she is a changed woman.

“I was taught and guided on how to start an income-generating business and how to manage it and I can confidently say I am now proper businesswoman as I know how to keep track of the income, expenses and profit from my venture.

To date, Pamela is renting a shop at a shopping centre in her village and she sells basic commodities to her local community members. She has grown beyond what she thought possible through patience, persistence and effective record-keeping.

The income she receives from her business has become instrumental in paying school fees for her children and providing for her family. She has also managed to build a family home with part of her profit as she makes an income of USD$800 per month from sales and a profit of USD$300 after settling all business expenses. She now lives above the USD$1.90 per day poverty datum line. A poverty datum line (PDL) represents the cost of a given standard of living that must be attained if a person is deemed not to be poor. Basically, a household’s income should be able to buy the quantities of food, shelter, and clothing, deemed necessary for their basic upkeep.

Figure 1: Pamela’s Family house under construction