Chronicle Editor
Flora Fadzai Sibanda
[email protected]
A Former maid in Bulawayo is now the director of a successful trust empowering women and youths with skills to enable them to earn a living.
Mrs Bekezela Ntaka (57) from Burnside suburb is the director of Virtuous Women’s Institute which has been empowering people for the past 19 years with detergent and shoe making as well as carpentry skills.
She said the trust has also created employment for more than 15 youths who are assisting her in teaching the other vulnerable groups.
Mrs Ntaka has also taken the training sessions to schools to benefit pupils who are not academically gifted.
In an interview during one of her training sessions held recently in Rangemore suburb, the woman said she is happy that she has equipped people with non-formal qualifications.
“In 1998 I used to work as a maid in Hillside for a woman who used to run the Hillside Women Institute which had white people. The institution used to teach white women how to make a lot of things from carpentry to tailoring and anything to do with the kitchen and they would later leave the place to look for greener pastures after being fully equipped.
“After seeing how many success stories were coming from there in 2004 I decided to start my own institution and use the little knowledge I was getting from watching my employer,” said Mrs Ntaka.
She said people started coming in numbers to get the skills.
Getting people to trust her work was difficult during the first few months as some thought she was competing with the already established Hillside Institute.
“You know how these things are. People will always discourage you and compare you to something that has already been there, especially if it is something that was great. However, I soldiered on and continued trying to make sure that people became aware of my work and what I was doing,” said the woman.
Mrs Ntaka said when she noted how a lot of people were now showing interest, she registered her organisation so that she could do things lawfully.
In 2018, after applying to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, she was given permission to work with school children in equipping them with different non formal qualifications which would allow them to take care of themselves.
“Because I know children are not all academically gifted I believe those who are not good with school should be given a chance to have an alternative clean way of making money.
That is really where my passion is, that is why even after I had learnt all my things I got during my stay with my employee I did not keep it to myself rather I distributed the knowledge and empowered other people especially the girl child and vulnerable women,” said Mrs Ntula.
She said as a way of motivating people to do more practical than theory there are some competitions that will be announced soon targeting youths who love using their hands.
Mrs Ntaka said running the trust is a bit difficult because people are not willing to take part in the informal sector.
This includes even those who are not academically gifted as they see the work as hard. -@flora_sibanda
Online Reporter