The Cane Lady
Rosebill Satha Sambo is a 25 year old happy, energetic, and engaging young woman who never lets any one or any situation get her down at least she says so. A business Lady at heart, Afrocentric talks to Rosebill Satha Sambo
In Malawi, young women have many opportunities now that gender equity has been has been established. Some choose to be academics, others technical and some move money around. These are the business women of Malawi. Rosebill is one such lady, she is a multi-tasker, she works, runs a business, a mother and a wife. She states that she has never waited for an opportunity to knock on her door. She has had to go out in search of opportunities!
Rosebill makes bamboo products ranging from dining sets to room dividers, beds, lounge chairs and flower/ gift baskets.
For Rosebill, the interest came from her mother’s, who works for the Ministry of Gender and Child Development, involvement in a skills training programme in 1998. The training involved a country wide approach focused on women in villages and one of the skills was how to make bamboo products. In 2005, Rosebill decided to establish JARDS Bamboo Products and has so far employed four people skilled in weaving.
However, being wonder woman has its challenges. Rosebill complains that time management between her professional and social life is quite complex. She says “there are so little hours for me in the day to manage all I do.” As multi tasker, Rosebill argues that you have to have priorities and make decisions otherwise it’s the business, the job or the family that suffers. You need to strike a balance between all these in order to have growth.
At the moment, Rosebills’ business is home based. She brags that “I have gained a good enough reputation that business comes through word of mouth or recommendations.” Her main achievement last year was to have the honor to make flower girl baskets and favor baskets for Duwa Mutharika’s wedding who is the daughter of the President of the Republic of Malawi Dr Bingu Wa Mutharika. Rosebill has a workshop in area called Falls in Lilongwe. She is proud to say “my house is my showroom, mostly all my living room furniture is made of bamboo.” Rosebill products are custom made by order so you are assured of their uniqness, they take about 4 to 6 weeks to make. All her products are chemically treated and she guarantees that they will not fray or fall apart.
Rosebill is also a youth activist. Rosebill is very passionate about issues of human rights and development. She is primarily focused on education and capacity building; she also takes an interest in environmental and climate change issues. Rosebill is a Trustee for The Women’s Club which promotes marketing access to women entrepreneurs and encourages networking. She is an e-mentor for the One World Youth Project (USA) which is a project which mentors students from schools from all over the world; I was the only Malawian chosen to attend the CIVICUS Youth Assembly in Glasgow in 2008.
Rosebill is also the founder and chairperson of Self Advancement for Youth in Malawi which assists needy students through Tertiary education and at the moment I am one of the 18 youth chosen from all over the world to head a community re-housing project in Cebu, Philippines from April-October 2010.
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