19 October 2009
By Starting a Bakery, then a Nonprofit, Kosovo Woman Helps Many
“NGO Lady” helps single mothers gain skills, find jobs
Pristina, Kosovo — Sanija Murati, her husband and three children came to Kosovo five years ago. Two weeks later, her husband died, and the family was left with little money in an unfamiliar country where they did not speak the language.
A lawyer by training, Murati had learned how to make cookies and cakes from her mother. So she opened a pastry shop in a small, run-down space. Murati employed three women like herself who, due to unfortunate circumstances, desperately needed work to support their families. She taught the three women how to bake. Murati wanted to do something for herself and for other women in the same position “because in Kosovo … we don’t have any institution that is working for a single mother,” she said. “Somebody needs to do something.”
As her pastries became popular and business grew, Murati opened a café that employs nine women. Another six women work at a bakery down the street. Employees include an orphan, a disabled woman and a woman whose husband is too sick to work — people who, Murati said, would not find help or work elsewhere in Kosovo. Murati said that since she has been in a similar position, she wants to help them.
“Our aim is not to make cookies,” she said. “Our aim is to find places and jobs for women to work, to create an image for women.”
Murati estimates she has helped about 500 women in some fashion in the last five years. Most were helped through the nongovernmental organization NGO Lady, which she launched in 2005. NGO Lady assists women seeking employment or those interested in starting their own businesses, which will typically employ even more women.
When Murati first launched her business, she asked BESA Consulting, a local company led by German Bajram Fusha, to help her develop a marketing plan. Today NGO Lady works with BESA Consulting to train women and place them in local jobs. “Thanks to her will, enthusiasm and desire to achieve something, [Murati] has solved her own problems and helped others,” said Fusha, noting that he did not foresee how successful Murati would be in such a short time.
COMMUNICATION IS THE FIRST SKILL
One of the biggest challenges for women in Kosovo is that they do not have the communication or presentation skills they need to present a business idea, Murati and Fusha agreed. “Communication is the first skill they need,” Fusha said. “If a woman doesn’t have a good approach, how can she get good access to the market?”
Additionally, women often struggle to be accepted in male-dominated workplaces, Murati said. The two organizations work to prepare women for the workplace by training them in marketing, quality management and general business relations.
In June, Murati joined women business leaders from 22 countries in the United States to talk with American women business owners and learn more about entrepreneurship. The women were brought to the United States as part of an International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) called “Women and Entrepreneurship.” IVLP brings about 5,000 professionals to the United States each year to meet with their American industry counterparts.
Murati’s group met female business owners in Washington; San Antonio; Memphis, Tennessee; Philadelphia; and Seattle. One of the most rewarding parts of the experience, Murati said, was the opportunity to connect with fellow participants from places like Bangladesh, China and Sierra Leone. She tapped into an international network of women doing good things for women all over the globe. She learned that regardless of where they are from, women “have the same problems … same ideas.”
Murati and Fusha hope they can expand their reach. Pristina’s mayor has agreed to provide land for a Business Incubator Center, a place for job training and job-placement services for women. The center could also provide space for women entrepreneurs to sell their products. The two are preparing to meet with Kosovo’s president about the project before they seek support from other partners, potentially including international organizations.
Her infectious confidence, which has inspired so many businesswomen, will be hard for such potential partners to resist. “I tell women,” Murati said, “that if I could do it … you could do it. It’s a really good feeling.”
