Married women and girls who have completed their education have been urged to stand out and try various openings to sustain their living and stop depending on their husbands or parents for survival.
This comes after the hard economic times being experienced everywhere while every person wishes to live a comfortable life.
Lucy Ngela, a 22 year old and resident of Muslim area in Bungoma town who runs a car wash business says life without one’s own job or business is hard and every other person needs to use the available resources to stand out and beat the odds.
She says after completing her fourth form and lacking school fees to proceed with further education decided to start washing cars as a way of surviving.
Having worked for 5 years she says she was employed before saving enough and opening her own car wash business at Pamus area in Bungoma
Ngela says the job is challenging because she doesn’t have enough water storage tanks to store water for her work and sometimes is forced to pour the water she had bought and wait for the following day, she also says her customers who were used to her followed her but the challenge emerges because she doesn’t have a shade where most customers prefer.
She also cites that some customers are stubborn after washing their cars they promise to pay her but end up not doing so instead they won’t return for the services in fear of the debt hence losing them.
Despite the challenges she has something to smile about because she has managed to pay her rent and her mother’s plus paying school fees for her siblings.
She also says it has enabled her meet her daily needs.
While running her errands Lucy says there is no specific job for women or men, if there is a job that brings money, women should move with haste and grab every opportunity that comes their way.
She advises women or young girls who have to survive to engage in various businesses available like frying chips, selling socks, house chores and other duties that can generate income.
When asked what she carries home after the day’s work, she laughs and says in a good day she makes around Shs.3500 and sometimes makes Shs. 1500.
She charges Shs.200 for small cars while bigger ones go for Shs.350- 500
Lucy now urges the county government and related bodies to sponsor them or rather offer loans to small scale traders to keep their businesses going and curb the incidents of theft plus hooliganism amongst people.
She says such jobs do not need special trainings like for her case it was hard to get a job having completed her fourth form without training she decided to venture into car washing and because of the passion she posed it has enabled her reach where she is.
She encourages young mothers and girls to invest wisely in their future saying they should not be dependants but be ready for people to depend on them.
