Dondoors
Aaliyah
and her father, Mehamud took us to the Mall where Aaliyah has designed and is
setting up a shop. Aaliyah is in her third year of a degree in
Architecture and obviously has a flare for Interior Decorating. In fact,
she is already designing interiors for businesses. We discovered that
many of the businesses are being financed by energetic people like Aaliyah,
well-educated and doing contract work to support the development of their
business. Mehamud, Aaliyah’s father,
established the business three years ago. He graduated from the Ehtiopian
Leather Industry Development Institute three year program a long time ago he
says, then worked in the government textile industry as a factory floor
supervisor. This new shop is a brave move because rental space in
malls is very expensive. The slide show
at the end will show how Aaliyah is combining the traditional with the modern
to develop the display areas. Allan was
impressed with her choice of his favorite color scheme, brown and gold. The
following Sat they took us to their factory site.
Mehamud owns the building where their
production factory is. I loved the character of the entrance way.
They have 30 machines, do volume discounting for large orders. He says
they need to work on marketing their products. The new store outlet will
bring new opportunities for them they hope. Orders mean work. As
their flyer says, ‘Thank you for helping us help them change their lives and
the lives of their siblings.’
It was
fascinating to watch the weaver at work. Hand woven, a scarf takes 6 to 8
hours to weave. Traditional is right, the loom is made of bamboo.
It will
be interesting to follow this business. Although Aaliyah appears shy, I
found her so enjoyable to work with in the development of a new product that we
hope to hear more about as time goes on.
Meet
Aaliyah through the slideshow.
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