Young tailor receives N18,000 from reader’s donation

Another BusinessDay reader has donated N18, 000 to Victoria Eche, bringing the total cash donations she has received to kick-start her

Another BusinessDay reader has donated N18, 000 to Victoria Eche, bringing the total cash donations she has received to kick-start her tailoring business to N38, 000. This is in addition to a sewing machine she received from Emel Group.

Victoria was first featured in the Wednesday, October 17, edition of the Dollar A Day, CityFile segment, in which she expressed desire to start her own tailoring business. When asked, she said this would require her having a sewing machine of about N18,000 and a wiping machine of over N70,000.

At the time, she was working in a tailoring shop where she got paid N500 daily, of which N300 was spent on transportation to and fro everyday. To augment her income, she hawked ‘fufu’ during the day as she did overnight sewing at the tailoring shop. The struggling Victoria once had a sewing machine but lost it to a fire disaster.

She explained: “After I finished learning to sew, my parents struggled to put some money together and they bought me a sewing machine at the beginning of 2008. When the fire disaster in Ijegun/Ikotun area happened in May 15, as a result of the oil spill, the sewing machine was among the property my family lost to the fire. The building we lived in was also affected by the fire. It was a rented apartment, so we moved to another one room apartment in another place. My parents could not afford to buy me another sewing machine, so I started working for a tailor.”

She added, “I buy five wraps of fufu for N200. I usually buy N1, 000 worth daily. I sell four for N200 to people selling food. I should have been earning about N250 daily if I am able to sell all the wraps in one day. The problem is that they usually collect on credit and ask me to return for payment. It is always difficult getting my money in full and that makes it difficult for me to get fresh supplies, since what I am left with from the other job is not even sufficient.”

Her parents are unable to support her financially as they are also struggling, especially after the fire that gulped the few valuable items they had. Her father is a farmer and her mother sells food in a school. She explained, “I am the second of their six children; they still have my younger ones in school to fend for. I hardly eat at home and this is a great relief to my parents due to their financial difficulty.”

Since January 2009, BusinessDay with the support of its readers, has been helping to alleviate the sufferings of the poor by empowering them financially.