Mall to help fight poverty trap

from the Gulf Daily News

By RASHA AL QAHTANI

THE New Productive Families mall in Seef will help low income families beat the poverty trap, by nurturing cottage industry-style enterprises.

It will give 80 families a place to showcase and sell their goods, such as pickles, pastries, perfumes, sweets, baskets, handicrafts, clothing and others.

The families are all from the government's Productive Families scheme, designed to help people help themselves by starting small businesses.

The BD430,000 mall was yesterday opened by Her Highness Shaikha Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, wife of His Majesty King Hamad and chairwoman of the Supreme Council for Women.

She opened the mall in a ceremony attended by Social Development Minister Dr Fatima Al Balooshi and other dignitaries and officials.

Ministry family and child development director Khalid Ishaq said the mall would provide a place for needy families to sell their homemade goods. "The mall provides a place to market their products locally and develop them in the future," he said.

"It is a pioneering initiative because it is only for Bahrainis and gives them a chance to enhance and develop their products."

Mr Ishaq said the mall would also act as an attraction because it would bring in many tourists, who would want to buy locally-made products.

The mall comprises 16 shops and four specialist units, including an information technology centre, a computer laboratory and training facilities.

It will also house a variety of stalls, giving space to 80 productive families. The two-storey building features a reception, exhibition area, a cafŽ and a restaurant. It has been built by the Labour Ministry, in co-operation with the Economic Development Board, which put in BD30,000 towards the facility.

The aim is to help needy families and particularly women develop marketable handicraft and homemade products, as well as develop and improve small businesses.

Um Khalid Sweets owner Layla Yousif told the GDN about her success story since she joined the Productive Families scheme. "My first experience started in 1986, when I read an advertisement for a cooking course at the Children and Mothers Welfare Society, in which I participated and learnt how to make birthday cakes," she said.

"One day I made a cake on my daughter's birthday and one of my friends told me to start a small business making and selling cakes. I welcomed the idea since I didn't work."

Ms Yousif said once she started, she realised she needed a budget to maintain the supplies she needed to make the cakes.

"In the beginning I started borrowing from family and friends and during Eid I would not sleep for four days before the occasion," she said.

In 1995 she joined the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry's Productive Families scheme, which helped her develop her business, which now caters to customers from all over the GCC.

Once she joined the project, she took part in various exhibitions organised by the ministry, which she said helped attract more customers, both locally and regionally.

"My husband encouraged me to open my own sweets shop and I was very interested in the idea," said Ms Yousif.

"I then opened Um Khalid Sweets, which became successful and more people got to know about me."

She said that all of this was possible through loans from the society and the Productive Families scheme.

"I will never forget their help when I needed a loan to buy the necessary materials for my sweets," she said.

"After becoming successful and able to stand on my own feet, I still help the ministry when they need sweets for an occasion, in return for all the support I received."

Aneesa Mohammed Ebrahim Al Aali and her family were saved by the scheme after facing hard times. "My husband was a successful businessman, with a job and a good income," she said.

"However, after he left his job we faced financial crisis and had to find another source of income, especially since we had two children."

Ms Al Aali and her husband started her first business in Oman, where they opened the Bahrain Shores restaurant.

"This business was doing well and we got many customers who soon became regulars," she said.

"The project was successful for five years and then we decided to return to Bahrain, but suffered another financial crisis."

Ms Al Aali often had relatives and other guests at her home and would prepare pastries and kababs for them. They were so good that visitors suggested she go into business.