18 till I die....

Susi (left) with her mother Mida (right) outside their house.

I  am working with the Grameen Foundation (GF) in Jakarta, Indonesia these three months.  GF helps the world's poorest, especially women, improve their lives and escape poverty by helping to provide access to new ways to generate income, access to appropriate financial services (such as savings accounts, small loans) and important information on health, crops, and finances.  I was visiting some GF supported social enterprises in Tangerang outside Jakarta a week back. I observed that amongst all the women micro-entrepreneurs affiliated to the social enterprises, there was a young girl with quite a feisty demeanor. Her confidence and ideas intrigued me and I got talking with her.

I found that her name was Susi; she is 18 and a micro-entrepreneur who uses GF AppLab’s talktime credit app to conduct business. Essentially, she sells prepaid mobile minutes in her community and makes about IDR 15000 – 20000 ($1.6 – 2.1) everyday.

She chose to become a micro-entrepreneur about 2 years back after her father lost his job as a construction laborer. She had to give up on her education in order to rescue her family of 7 from sinking deeper into poverty. She is proud of her entrepreneurial skills and dreams to open her own grocery store. Thanks to her efforts, her father has been able to buy a motorcycle and he now operates as a motorcycle messenger.

I asked her what does she intend doing going forward…. does she want to get back to education…. does she want to stop now that her father has a stable income?

She promptly replied, “I want to be 18 till I die…. this way I can keep making good money  and I can keep supporting my family.”