“I do the cooking!” exclaimed Haytham Abu Ziad who owns and manages a pickle manufacturing facility along with his spouse in Sweileh, a piece of the Amman Governorate in Jordan. Haytham began a home-based enterprise and inside 3 years was in a position to develop into a bigger pickle manufacturing facility – his enterprise is registered with the federal government and he’s answerable for paying taxes. The manufacturing facility continues to be inside his house however stationed in a big walk-in pantry.
As he walked us by means of his manufacturing facility, we had been uncovered to a colourful array of jarred produce prepared for distribution. Haytham and his spouse provide 5 star lodges with quite a lot of pickled meals gadgets together with olives, peppers and eggplant, amongst different gadgets. Haytham doesn’t at present provide to grocery shops as a result of they require a bigger quantity. All of his produce is domestically grown – particularly from a metropolis outdoors of Amman.
Haytham is a shopper of Microfund for Ladies and is served by the Sweileh department which gives loans from $1,000 to $30,000 (800 JOD to 25,000 JOD). The portfolio in danger* on the department is below 2% which be attributed to the department deal with shopper compensation capability in addition to a settlement coverage that features reminders to purchasers 2 days earlier than compensation. An MFW shopper for two years, Haytham obtained his first mortgage of $2,835 (2,000 JOD) and a second mortgage for a similar quantity. It was fascinating to go to a male shopper since Sweileh serves 97% girls purchasers and has 75% girls workers. I consider it proves Ladies’s World Banking’s perception that designing monetary merchandise for girls advantages males as nicely. As our President and CEO Mary Ellen Iskenderian likes to say, “in case you design a product for a lady, it can discover a male market”.
One of the vital highly effective moments of the temporary interplay for me was observing that Hyatham doesn’t ascribe to conventional gender roles, opposite to what I anticipated. We had been within the Center East in spite of everything, the place customs round gender stay robust. In accordance with Ladies’s World Banking’s personal gender analysis in Jordan, whereas there was an extension of ladies’s roles as monetary suppliers, they nonetheless play the first position of caregiver and homemaker. Haytham does the entire cooking for the enterprise outdoors of his home – he additionally fortunately added that past cooking for enterprise functions “in my home, I cook dinner for my spouse.”
As enterprise companions, his spouse takes accountability for the “ornament” or packaging of the gadgets. Haytham’s daughter additionally assists with the enterprise when she isn’t in class. Haytham, a former trainer and electrical engineer in Libya, enjoys and finds nice pleasure in his enterprise. He spoke to the profitability of this line of labor, noting that one kilo of eggplant turns into two kilos as soon as pickled.
On the finish of the go to Haytham supplied the visiting group a tasted of his array of pickled produce. When requested which one tastes the perfect, he proudly replied “every part is finest!”
*Portfolio in danger or PAR is the portion of a financial institution’s mortgage portfolio which is deemed vulnerable to write-off as a result of funds are overdue.
