When a Mother Championed Over Her Limitation for The Sake of Her Children Education
Full Name: Suharti
Country: Indonesia
Location: Yogyakarta
Batch No.: Pilot, Batch 4
Date Trained: 10 – 12 August 2016
Disability: Limping on left leg
Business: Tailoring
Average Monthly Income Before: IDR 500,000
Average Monthly Income After: IDR 2,000,000
Suharti is a young mother aged 35, with 2 beautiful children. She and her husband live with her parents in a village in Bantul, Yogyakarta and where both her children attend school. She used to work at a boutique store where she stitched bags and made alterations as well. In was in the year 2006 when the heart breaking earthquake hit Yogyakarta, and changed her life forever. Her leg was crushed by the heavy rubble, leaving a permanent injury to her leg. Both her family and her were devastated. This changed their lives, mentally, emotionally and financially. She could no longer go to work, she could no longer support the family, or so she thought. Having gotten 2 years of treatment at the Balai Rehabilitasi Penyandang Disabilitas (BRTPD) Pundong, she learnt how to adapt to her new body. In an attempt of a new beginning, she offered sewing services to her neighbours. Though it was not a futile attempt, her efforts weren’t exactly fruitful either in terms of income earned for the family. For close to 8 years, her business remained stagnant with the same production type, levels, clients and credit methods. Even with her husband’s income combined, they were far from able to cover their expenses. This caused Suharti’s biggest fear, which was her inability to pay for her children’s school fees. There were times when she couldn’t pay her children school fees and she had the fear that she would have to stop sending her children for their education at school, which was something very important to her.
In 2016, she attended the Maybank RISE training for 3 days, followed by the mentoring sessions, and there she gained not only strategies for her business but also confidence, encouragement and motivation for her to be better, to be proud of her own abilities, and to be hopeful of the future. With the combination of her new knowledge and perseverance, she managed to find business partners to collaborate with her and her tailoring business, giving her a steady number of orders. Her new found confidence allowed her to deny unfavourable credit requests and demand down-payments to cover cost instead, creating a healthy cash flow for her business. She also implemented other sales and growth strategies thought at the R.I.S.E training. Her then seemingly fruitless business has now become the main fuel for the family’s financial needs.
School fee payments no longer became something to dread about, and her children don’t have to face the embarrassment of being questioned by their teachers for the unsettled school fees anymore. Suharti is now the only one in her village who is able to afford tutors for both her children. On top of that, she now managed to buy herself a new motorcycle to help with her mobility. There used to be a time when she had so much difficulties to travel around, relying on her husband or her neighbors to drive her, she hated how helpless she was and hated that kind of dependency on others. This motorcycle has become a symbol of her independence, her freedom, and her pride. She continues to build her business focusing on providing for her family and her children, the Maybank R.I.S.E programme has become a big game changer for her and her family.
