10 Apr 2014

She grew up in a very poor family, raised by migrant farm workers who toiled to put bread on the table for their children.

It was no surprise when Akanyetsang Mojombe also followed her parents’ example and started working as a farm worker from a very young age.

But then she found her Good Samaritan at the age of 20, and since then her life has never been the same.

Now 42, Ms Mojombe still vividly recalls the hardships she went through in her early life. She started working in Reginah Ramoupo’s farm at 20 years of age.

For young Akanyetsang, Ms Ramoupo was not only an employer but also an inspiration and a role model.

As a tailor and a businesswoman, she was the embodiment of everything that Akanyetsang aspired to be. It was not surprising when within a very short space of time she was employed as a seamstress in Ms Ramoupo’s dress making business.

“I dropped out of school at a very young age. Very soon I was employed as a farm worker and in no time I was pregnant,” said Akanyetsang.

However, despite her hardships as a victim of child labor and teenage pregnancy, she had always aspired to be a better person in life, to free herself from the shackles that had condemned her parents to a life of servitude.

From a very young age, she realized that part of her parents’ suffering was due to the fact that they were not educated, and she decided there and then that she would go to school.

But that was not to be as she soon dropped out, started working and ended up a teenage mother. When she started working as a seamstress, Akanyetsang didn’t know anything about sewing, but her employer was patient and she trained her until she became a pro.

Though the wages she earned were low and could hardly sustain her, young Akanyetsang labored on patiently. But soon tragedy struck. Akanyetsang’s daughter, Kealeboga, fell very ill and lost the use of both her legs and her left hand.

Her child’s disability hit her hard, but she soldiered on and used the little money she earned as a seamstress to care for her child.

In 1996, during her fourth year working for Ms Ramoupo, Akanyetsang was sent for a short course on pattern adaptation and grading.

This was the beginning of her road to success. She continued working for Ms Ramoupo for a further seven years, and she has no regrets about her decision because she considered it a gesture of appreciation and loyalty to her employer.

But life was still tough for her, especially because she had to pay for her siblings’ school fees and also care for her extended family.

“My breakthrough came in 2003. After 11 years I finally decided to set up my own sewing business. I had the requisite skills and experience which I had earned from working with my mentor Ms Ramoupo,” she said.

She started off with nothing, and she altered people’s clothing using her hands because she didn’t have any machinery.

Things were tough, and she had to juggle her work with household chores. Worse, her earnings as a self-employed tailor were very much less than what she used to earn as Ms Ramoupo’s seamstress.

At some point her fiancée traded his calf for a peddler sewing machine, which greatly improved her efficiency and set her on course to success.

Her work greatly improved and her business thrived as orders started flowing in. Now a grown woman, Akanyetsang’s daughter Kealeboga also joined the business after rigorous training from her mother.

While her mother was busy making clothes, Kealeboga would be on the other side of the workshop busy with her homemade croc het hook making mats from waste cloth and sacks.

“Ms Ramoupo is still very much involved in our lives. She is the one who provides Kealeboga with sacks that were used to package maize meal and flour. I sometimes travel all the way to Gaborone to buy the sacks for her,” revealed Akanyetsang.

Kealeboga is now 25 year old and she has overcome disability by following on her mother’s footsteps and establishing her own arts and crafts business.

Her mats range from P40 to P120 and they are selling like fat cakes. She said her artifacts keep her busy and help her overcome loneliness because it is not always easy to mingle with her peers because of her disability.

“I am able to fend for myself and meet all my needs with the money that I make from selling these artifacts. It’s a lot of work, but I can cope because I am a hard worker like my mother,” she said.

For her part Akanyetsang said she is grateful to God for granting her daughter the courage to overcome her disability. She considers her daughter to be a miracle and one of the many blessings that God has showered upon her, which enabled her to build herself a five roomed house, in which her workshop is accommodated.

Through money earned from her business Akanyetsang has also been able to fend for her siblings and generally improve the livelihood of her family. As part of efforts to grow her business, Akanyetsang is now looking to acquire an electric over lock machine that makes hemming stitches that appear neater and aesthetically appealing. She always wants to enroll for a basic course in business management.

She believes she managed to attain all this success through competitive pricing, maintaining high standards and good quality as well as meeting targets.

Along the way, she learnt the folly of providing services on credit, after her business nearly collapsed a few years back when debtors failed to pay her.

Nowadays she demands a deposit before she starts work and full settlement of the balance when the customers come to collect their goods.

One of the biggest challenges that Akanyang and Kealeboga face in their business is lack of funds to purchase raw materials. They also have problematic customers who place orders and then fail to collect them. But the mother and her child have not been deterred by their difficulties.

They are now seeking finances to expand their business and purchase more machinery.

“We want to set up a massive clothing and textile industry that will also impart tailoring skills to the youth,” they said.

This is an encouraging statement, coming from a woman who was born into servitude with a disabled child who needed extra care and attention.

The mother was never deterred by her unfortunate circumstances, and the child overcame her disability to become a self-sustainable business woman.
They achieved all that through hard work and perseverance. ENDS