Resilience, hard work pays off

and gloom now reads like a fairytale rags to riches story thanks to her entrepreneurial mind that drove her to start a peanut butter making venture in her kitchen.
The business has now grown from an initial investment of US$17,50 to the thriving venture she is now running in the Chitungwiza light industrial area.
When her husband died in 1993, Gogo Sihlangu, as she is affectionately known in her neighbourhood, was left with the responsibility to fend for her five children.
Unemployed and without any means of survival, Gogo Sihlangu was the laughing stock of the neighbourhood.
This forced her to venture into buying and selling various commodities. She also joined the Kupfuma Ishungu Micro Finance Scheme which led her to buy her first peanut butter making machine and started processing and selling the commodity from home.
She also offered the use of her machine to other people for a fee. This enabled her to raise money for her basic needs and school fees for her children as her lifestyle started to change for the better. Her youngest son recently completed his A-Levels and plans to go to university.
Gogo Sihlangu was only able to produce about 10 bottles of peanut butter per day and realising the potential of the business, her enterprising son Roy bought into the idea and made a replica of the machine using scrap material.
Even with increased production, the two machines still could not meet the demand.
With time, the mother and son team put more effort into the business and the product was branded Aunty Bee’s Peanut Butter and its popularity was not only confined to Chitungwiza and its environs, but countrywide.
This forced Gogo Sihlangu and her son to seek bigger premises in the adjacent light industrial area as Roy continued to build bigger machines for roasting, sifting and grinding ground nuts into peanut butter.
With age restricting her active involvement, Gogo Sihlangu has now taken a back seat in the business that is now under the control of Roy and 12 other employees including his wife.
Despite her flourishing business, Gogo Sihlangu continues to be a member of the Kuguta Ishungu Micro Finance run by CARE Zimbabwe and other co-operating partners.
“Through the peanut butter business, my life improved and became meaningful. I was now able to take my children to school, buy food and pay bills and also save.
“I never expected that I would reach this level from my humble beginnings,” she said during an interview in her living room last week.
In a modest factory in the industrial area, Gogo Sihlangu albeit not actively involved in the day-to-day operations she is up to speed with the goings on as she explained the process in the absence of her son.
The growth of the business has also led to diversification with the production of cordial drinks and maputi. She, however, said that peanut butter making remains the core business.
One of the challenges facing the peanut butter production is the availability of groundnuts whose production is seasonal and often presents procurement challenges.
In some instances she has had to import the groundnuts from Malawi as she could not get the nuts locally.
Gogo Sihlangu remains a reservoir of knowledge and at her club, most members look up to her for advice on new and existing ventures.
Members of the clubs are involved in various income-generating activities including cross-border trading.
Gogo Sihlangu’s venture remains a shining example of how communities can be transformed through social entrepreneurship ventures.
The involvement of the community has helped her overcome some of the setbacks that would have otherwise condemned her business to the dustbin.
The micro-finance initiative can be used as an intervening mechanism to prop up income-generating projects that will be used as a poverty reduction tool.
What is encouraging is that members contribute and then borrow from their own resources, which they repay with a marginal interest.
Interestingly the default rate is very low if not insignificant as the members have a collective responsibility for the sustainability of the programme.
It is also of interest that the majority of the members in these groups are women, constituting up to 94 percent.
Men have, however ,defended themselves saying they are always behind the innovations of their spouses. Well I will not get into much detail on that.
Gogo Sihlangu shall live to inspire many other women facing the same plight as she maintains that what she achieved in five years was much greater than what she did in 20 years. She is truly a living testimony of the outcome of perseverance and hard work.
As always, let’s make money.