Samia's Ambitions

She is the mother of five children, three of whom suffer from a hereditary disease. Despite her circumstances, Samia enrolled in an adult literacy class that was offered in 2009. She now attends the follow-up class and is determined to continue her studies, especially after the SFD added a new subject, "Life Skills,” a hands-on course to combat illiteracy and poverty. Samia passionately sought to attend the course – which met for three hours per week – in order to learn new and useful skills that would help her improve her family's day-to-day well being. Before the course, Samia and other women had noticed that some women were selling incense to women at high price, despite the inferior quality of the product ("it is all sugar and has no aroma," said Samia), and the fact that they had purchased it from outside governorates.

Samia saw an opportunity to apply the new methods of processing incense and perfumes that she learned from several of her “Life Skills” sessions. She used these newly gained skills to produce a superior product, which in turn could help generate income for her family. Samia asked her husband to bring her materials from governorate of Aden, which she then used to produce incense according to this new process.  She sold a portion of the incense she produced in her own village and sent the remainder to her mother in another village, to sell there. "It is true that I sold the products with no profit, but I did not expect the products to be of this good quality and so popular with the women. Next time, I will sell them at a higher price. I bought some materials from the city of Al-Rahidah to apply methods of perfume making at home that I learned," says Samia. Samia also benefited from the first aid sessions, which trained her to repair her nephews’ fractured bones. Samia's ambition is unlimited and she seeks to take advantage of all lessons she has learned in the “Life Skills” class.  Her next plan is to process “tomato sauce and cheese once the electricity is back.” Not content to stop with the skills she has already learned, Samia now has even more ambitious plans and wishes to learn new skills in the area of ​​housekeeping and cooking.