Full of energy, Fathiya Lucky is a young girl with strong ambitions, aiming to be a great leader who will fight for the rights of women across the country.
Fathiya leaves in Borama city in Somaliland. Together with her family, she owns a car wash business and does the work herself together with 3 men she hired to assist when there is a lot of a car to wash especially on Fridays
“Friday is special day for Muslims across the world, it is also our weekend here, families go out, men go to mosques and everyone wants to drive a clean beautiful car. I enjoy my business during this day making good money at the end of it,” says Fathiya.
Fathiya,at only 22 years old, has madehuge changes in her life. Growing up in a poor family in rural Somaliland, she moved to Borama searching for job to move her family out of her village and provide them with a better life
As she searched for job, she joined youth groups, women group, participated in several community work, becoming known as a hardworking young girl with strong feminist values in her community
Fathiya has good communication skills and she had desires on pursuing journalism but didn’t have enough money to join university. Fortunately, the government paid for her education and asked her to work with the government information department as a journalist.
But still, Fathiya wanted to do something big; she wanted more money, a business of her own that could fund moving her parents to the city.
After hearing about KIMS, she used the little money that she had saved to qualify for a loan to start her own car wash business. Following loan approval, her business picked up dramatically and was able to repay her loan immediately.
Finally, she managed to safe good amount of money moving her family to Borama, reuniting with her family.
As a part-time student who’s working with the government while running her own business, many Somali women look up to her as a role model.
“With my busy schedule I still manage to meet with women living in Borama to discuss the importance of women to participate fully in entrepreneurial activities”.
Fathiya believes a woman should get married when she is ready, and that she should not wait for the man to provide for her all the time, women should learn to provide for themselves.
She is now setting up her second business, hoping to buy her own house someday and pay for her sibling’s school fee. She also wants to set up a shop for her mother to work instead of sitting at home