Thursday 19 / December / 2024
Muscat: When Afra bint Mohammed Al Ma’amari set up her own business, she did so because she wanted to become more independent, and didn’t plan on sitting idly at home after being unable to find a job, despite searching for work for two years.
After the 26-year-old from Sohar graduated with a degree in engineering from the National University of Science and Technology, she applied for a number of positions in her field in the private and public sectors. She received very few responses, though.
“After two years of searching, I decided to start my own business selling dates and saffron during the Holy Month of Ramadan,” she said. “I chose this path to help develop my skills, instead of sitting at home with not much to do.”
“I have spent a lot of my life so far at school, and then went to university, all of this for a total of 17 years, so that I can become more independent, and serve Oman, but unfortunately, I never received the chance to prove myself in my specialised field,” Afra, who is married and has an 11-month old daughter, added.
“Therefore, I decided not to wait for a job to come my way,” she said. “Instead, I decided to set up my business, especially since a lot of dates and saffron is consumed during Ramadan.”
Dates are sold in boxes for OMR24, while depending on the quality, saffron can fetch anywhere between 800 baisas and OMR7. To bring her more business and increase publicity, she has also agreed to a deal with an Omani website, which will publish ads for her on Twitter.
Her business aside, Afra also works with a charity organisation that dedicates itself to providing for the elderly in her native governorate of North Al Batinah and across the country, where they have many people under their care. This initiative, called Artal, was launched in 2015, when she was still at university.
“I am still keen to find a job as soon as possible: I hope to translate what I have learned in my life, in the workplace, so that I can reach the ambitions I always hoped to achieve,” added Afra.
