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It never rained for 46 years old Emaurine Chiumia from Zolozolo West in Mzuzu but poured for her.

In 2004, she was divorced and left with the responsibility of caring for four children. With no paid job, no regular source of income and a big responsibility to take care of the children, she had serious challenges to fulfill her parental obligation towards her children.

“Family Strengthening Programme (FSP) of SOS Children’s Villages Malawi, has helped me so much. I was one of the beneficiaries who attended  the  vocational  skills  training in tailoring and textile designing. I was also trained in business management, a skill which helps me so much in my small tailoring business. Currently, my life has  greatly  improved.  I  am able to support my children with school fees and school related materials, food and clothes single handedly. I live a peaceful and happy life”, says Chiumia.

Chiumia said, she has been receiving a number of donations from various organisations and individuals to help in improving her economic muscle. The tailoring machine that she is currently using was also a donation from one faith based organisation. Unfortunately, since she had no technical knowhow of operating  it, it has been staying idle for the past four years. She was even tempted to sell it one time, lucky enough, there was no one who showed interest to buy it. Using her business management skills, Chiumia is able to calculate all business transactions like cash flow, profits made as such she is able to make viable decisions regarding how to grow her business. “The main Challenge I see is lack of markets, but of late, I am exploring

a number of strategies to penetrate new markets mostly the community and mobile markets. I can notice a big difference in terms of sales in these markets,” says Chiumia.

“The support this area is getting from SOS Children’s Villages Malawi is quite commendable. A number of families are now self-reliant and their capacity to care for their children has greatly improved.

Other caregivers were trained in hair dressing, bakery bricklaying.