Sumira plans to expand business, hire more workers

KABUL (Pajhwok): Initially investing just 7,000 afghanis, Sumira Mohammadi started her business three years ago by selling Bolani in Kabul and then she opened a restaurant and now she plans to open her restaurant’s new branch in near future.

Sumira loves to expand and improve her business and believes if supported she can run different businesses and employ more workers.

Sumira is from Qala-i-Najarha area of Kabul city. She runs and manages her “Banowan Afghan” restaurant. She serves her customers some special dishes such as Bolani, Ashak, Manto, Sambosa, Kabob, Shorma Kabob, German Roll, Ice-cream and Sher-Yakh.

She told Pajhwok before her restaurant, she owned a tailoring company where she had employed hundreds of women, but due to lack of customers, she wound up the business.

She said: “About 600 female tailors would work in my tailoring company eight years ago, but my business faced stagnation due to economic problems in Afghanistan, I could not sell clothes we produced, so I shut the gate of my tailoring company.”

After closing her tailoring company, Sumira was jobless for seven months and then went to Iran, but failed to set up any business there as well.

Then she returned to the country and opened restaurant with the help of her parents.

She said: “After the IEA takeover, I was lucky to open my tiny food-shop and serve my customers Bolani, Ashak and Sambosa. But now the total investment in my restaurant reaches 2.5 million afs and I succeeded to employ 22 workers. At the beginning I had employed only three workers.”

“Right now eight male and 14 females are working with me”, she explained.

Sumira not only pays workers’ salaries from the income from her restaurant but also supports her 14 member family.

The wages of workers vary according to their experience. They earn 50 to 300 afs daily. Kabob, chapli-kabob, ice-cream and Sher-Yakh are prepared by male chefs and the rest of the food is prepared by females, Sumira said.

However, Samira described it ‘a back-breaking duty. Happy with her business, her team works from 7:00am until 11:00pm every day, she said they have separate partitions for welcoming their male and female customers.

Running such a restaurant was Sumira’s childhood wish, something that came true. She now wants to open more branches in Kabul city and hire more women in her business.

She expects to open the first branch in Karti Char area of Kabul city.

She also hopes to sell foods prepared by her on hand-carts in the city and to turn it into reality, she will need 30 more female workers.

Sumira talked about her future plans and said: “I have many plans for future and I pray I succeed. I will purchase 30 more carts, hire as many jobless females and sell our food in the streets of the capital. I will make them a uniform as well.”

Sumira asked un-employed women to start their own businesses with small investments and then expand them. While appreciating the IEA authorities for supporting female entrepreneurs, she requested the establishment of special female roadside markets with a discount in rent for females.

Samira is 35 and is married and is the mother of a daughter and two sons. She said she had finished high school, but could not follow her education because of economic problems.

Sumira’s workers are happy for being employed in the restaurant. Sahar Azizi, one of them said: “When I graduated from school, I was desperate to get a job somewhere, I thank God to be employed in this restaurant and I get 5,000 monthly pay.”

She is also happy about the monthly pay she gets and this way she helps her family. But she asked the government to open the doors of educational institutions for girls above grade six:

“Girls who are sitting idle at homes after they were barred from high schools and universities are desperate to look for jobs.”

Husna Kohistani, another employee, said: “I have been working in this restaurant since last three years, I started this job when I was in seventh class, then I attended a tailoring course after that I came to this restaurant.”

Husna gets 3,000 Afs monthly from the restaurant against working from 8:00am to 2:00pm.

aw/ma

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