Mr. M.B , 35 years old, is married and the sole supporter of his family consisting of his wife, three children, as well as his brother's widowed wife and two nephews. He has been displaced and lives now at al-Zahera in a rented house.
M.B not only lost his home, but also his self-confidence, autonomy and sense of security with regard to the future. He used to own a large workshop for shoe mold manufacture, before the prevailing conditions made him lose it and all that he possessed after the family was displaced. After being self-employed, master of his own destiny and a supporter of the local markets with his quality products, he was now forced to get a job in a small workshop.
At that critical juncture, M.B was monitored at al-Zahera. We met a man torn between illness, hopelessness and a faint glimmer of hope. M.B was suffering from a brain degenerative disease that gradually erodes brain cells, in conjunction with years of hardship that flattened his hopes too.
After being selected as a Microenterprise Entrepreneur Program beneficiary, M.B was assigned to a small-business management and entrepreneurship course. He was obviously very interested and demonstrated a great deal of excellence during the training, which made him duly qualified to run a project. Thus, his small project was eventually approved, which restored his hope for autonomy in this life, already made difficult for him in most respects.
In order to start, he was fully supplied with the project's hardware, machinery and tools, so that M.B was able, within two weeks only, to render quality products and supply the local market. Very soon after, he expanded the area of his work and began to export his quality shoe molds to other provinces.
The dramatic improvement, however, was not only economic. His health condition improved too, as he was now able to commit to medication doses, which stabilized disease progression.
Thus, hope and taste for life were restored to M.B , who said proudly: "I am now able to take responsibility for my children. I will never fear again as long as goodness exists on earth!"