Sweat, Hard Work, and Optimism: Building Stability in Liberia Through Entrepreneurship
When I touched down on the cracked runway at Roberts International Airport, five months after fleeing the deadly Ebola epidemic ravaging my home country, the first thing that caught my eye was the cluster of stark white medical treatment tents that lined the usually grassy field nearby. Before entering the outdated room we call an ‘Arrivals Hall,’ I had to wash my hands at a makeshift sanitation station; a bucket that contained a blend of soap and chlorine. Then I had to have my temperature taken by an airport worker armed with an infrared thermometer gun trained at my forehead. Signs of post-war were now mixed with evidence of Ebola. It was not a combination I was prepared to experience.
This was my first taste of the new normal in Liberia, and it would be the beginning of my push for something better to come.
I remember the long drive home from the airport. The West African sun, beating down as it always does during our dry season. I was eager to make this place normal again. I excitedly called the manager of my store, Mango Rags, to say I was home and we would reopen the best way we knew how: with sweat, hard work, and optimism.
Liberians have had to tap into sweat, hard work, and optimism a lot over the years. This country had emerged from fourteen years of civil war, and was just now beginning to pick up the pieces and the soul of its society when Ebola came out of nowhere — threatening the only stability many Liberians had ever known.
As a business owner, it felt good to know that I could help build stability by uplifting Liberia’s best resource: its people.
As I repainted and restocked my once-booming boutique, I decided this time we would be around for good — and we ‘do good’ by employing and empowering some of the hardest-hit people we could find. We were looking for those directly impacted by Ebola, rape survivors, and deaf students. Our only criteria was that they wanted to learn a trade. For us, it was time to reopen locally and grow globally, and Liberian women would be key to bringing everything back together again.
The Bombchel Factory is an ethical African fashion wonderland based in the heart of Monrovia, Liberia where we train disadvantaged women to sew our contemporary African styles for sale. Tribal print clothing can be found on every runway and in many stores, but not much of it is made on the continent.
We aim to change that, and the conversation on our country, by training women who are eager to earn a living through fashion. We are excited to make women around the world look beautiful in creations inspired by our homeland and made in our homeland. We are in the business of offering a hand up instead of a hand out, and our company is steadily growing strong because of it.
Our very first Bombchel, Beatrice, came to us through the ambulance driver who transported her dying husband to a hospital as Ebola took his life. When she first came to The Bombchel Factory, Beatrice was an extremely shy 27-year-old who could not read or write. She had been forced out of her village for being an Ebola widow.
Desperate, she had recently taken to selling fish in the market in order to support herself and her 13-year-old daughter. Despite the tremendous challenges, Beatrice’s drive superseded everything. She quickly learned to sew and in six months, she has made countless skirts, dresses, and blankets for clients who believe in the strength of Liberian women, and want to wear African clothing that supports us.
A true SME, we have four other Bombchels who have invested their sweat, hard work, and optimism into growing The Bombchel Factory with us. It’s not about creating fast fashion or pity purchases. We love knowing that we are earning stability for ourselves through our business. Without waiting for a donor fund or a charity, we know social enterprises go a long way in building community, and therefore, building an economy.
I will never forget the first time Beatrice wrote her name. It was just a few months ago. She proudly printed it on a skirt she had completed. We both fought back tears. It’s a reminder that despite the challenges we face as entrepreneurs in developing countries, we must press on because the little victories add up to a great business, and great businesses create the lasting impact which countries like Liberia need.
We are changing our little corner of the world, one Beatrice, one sweat, — and one stitch at a time.
Read Archel’s “Meet the GES Delegate” Profile, also found in this GES Medium publication.
