Women cooking their way to success

Monica Atoch opens one cooking pot after another to ensure that the large variety of local delicacies is all ready for her customers who start coming in for lunch at about 11 a.m.

Monica’s story is very inspiring and demonstrates her resilience.

She started off with a small roadside tea shop with one kettle and six glasses and is now the owner of a large restaurant in the Abyei Administrative Area, with seven employees.

From serving a handful of customers a day, the mother of five now serves 60-80 customers a day and this number can sometimes go up to 100.

“In 2016, I started a small tea shop in Abathok, a village not too far from Abyei town, which I operated for a few months before closing it down due to financial difficulties. I tried doing other small businesses, but they also failed,” recalls Monica.

Monica then moved to Abyei where she opened another tea shop. Gradually, the 35-year-old widow bought more utensils and started cooking food, in addition to the beverages.

In November 2020, Monica was among 140 people who received business management skills training facilitated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which aims to promote stability, self-reliance, and resilience of conflict-affected populations in Abyei.

“The training, whose objective was to impart entrepreneurial skills to vulnerable people, including youth, women and persons with disabilities, covered topics such as introduction to small businesses, financial management, costing and pricing, marketing, customer care, record keeping and proposal writing for small businesses,” said Joseph Bombe, IOM’s Senior Programs Assistant.

Bombe added that after the training the participants submitted simple business proposals which IOM reviewed for viability after which the beneficiaries were given start-up kits to assist in setting up or expanding their businesses.

Those who are supported are enrolled in a weekly mentorship program to monitor the performance of their businesses and give technical advice to those that face challenges in order to better improve their performance. The mentorship program runs for a period of three months after which the best performing groups are phased out to operate on their own.

Bombe explains that the startup support depends on the type of business the beneficiaries are doing. For Monica, and others in the restaurant business, IOM supported them by giving them some capital and in-kind items to help boost their businesses.

“I wish I had done the training earlier,” said Monica. “Previously I really didn’t know much about making profit, my target was just food for the day. Now I have made savings, expanded my business and made other investments. I am even able to support my siblings’ education, in addition to taking my own children to school.”

Not too far from Monica’s restaurant, 32-year-old Ayen Kuol, shares a joke with her customers as she serves them lunch. Her restaurant is a bustle of activity as she and her employees serve the lunch-time crowd.

Ayen is also a beneficiary of the small business skills training and the startup kit. She first started her business in 2011 selling sandwiches and later opened a small restaurant in Agok, a town that is about an hour’s drive from Abyei.

“I got so frustrated because I had taken so many loans that I ended up closing the restaurant,” says the mother of four.

In 2016, she opened a tea shop in Abyei soon after opened a small restaurant. Like Monica, she got the business skills training from IOM and the startup kit which enabled her to expand her business.

“I am very happy with the training and support that IOM has given me which enables me to take care of my family since my husband does not have a job,” says Ayen.

IOM’s Transition and Recovery Unit’s “Promoting Stability, Self-Reliance and Resilience of Conflict Affected and Mobile Populations in Abyei Project” is funded by the the Government of the Netherlands.

Written by Rosemary Ogola, IOM Transition and Recovery Communications Consultant.