Weaving magic: Gaba with a customer at her salon
Learning hairdressing skills has led to a thriving small business for the single mother of two
Andrew Ewoku
When Gaba Francis fell pregnant while still a student in 2018, her father stopped paying her university fees. Her hopes of finishing her qualifications were dashed and her future became uncertain. As a single mother living in an area in South Sudan with very few opportunities, Gaba was struggling to makes end meet.
She says she felt like a school drop-out with “no survival skills”.
“My husband used to work as an electrician without much income to support us, before he left home one day and never came back. I would occasionally get some small work to wash clothes in the neighbourhood, but that barely saw us through. I tried many times to search for a rewarding job, but owing to my lack of skills, I could not secure anything stable,” she says.
However, last year her household was identified in an Urban Safety Net Programme (USNP) offered by ForAfrika and the World Food Programme (WFP). The USNP aims to provide vocational skills to vulnerable families in order to increase their chances of gainful employment.
Learning new skills
Gaba chose to be enrolled in the hairdressing cohort and, through the Egypt Academy Skills Institute, she was trained in hair styling and then given the tools with which to open her own small business.
Gaba’s dream of providing for her children has now come true as she has been able to start her own salon. Initially, she started from the door of her home, but once she had saved up enough money, she was able to rent a space in Rock City, a suburb of Juba. She now has a fully-fledged hair salon and has already paid her rent upfront for the next two months. She also employs two other women to support her with braiding.
Since it is a new place, Gaba is actively promoting her business and offering discounts for her new customers. She has started offering henna art as a way of boosting her profits. She says her total profit per month from plaiting and henna applications is 250,000 SSP, approximately $82 per month. Considering that the average income of a person in South Sudan is roughly $30-$60 a month, Gaba is faring well.
“I thank ForAfrika so much for the training and supporting me with the start-up kits. I can now budget for my children’s school fees and provide three meals a day for my family, even with the harsh economic crisis,”Gaba says, smiling broadly.
She added that she did not think her life would amount to much after dropping out of college and being abandoned by the father of her two children, so she is very grateful for her second chance.
Andrew Ewoku is Communications Specialist in South Sudan
