Martha, CAMFED Association member and entrepreneur, Ghana - Video Transcript
Martha, CAMFED Association Member I’m Martha of Healthy Choice Agro Consult. At Healthy Choice Agro Consults I am the founder and the CEO. Growing up, I realized that being an entrepreneur is a very good thing. It’s really going to afford you the opportunity and extra sources of income to support yourself. You also get to work at your own pace. You also get to employ more people to work, you also solve a problem in society. So when I was able to start my own business, I was like, wow, I’ve got there!
So I started this Healthy Choice Agro Consult, I started the mushrooms. I was able to get the structure in place, then we started production. At the final stage, first I entered the food production room, when I saw mushrooms coming out like, wow, I’ve done it! To me, education is a right route to help every individual to fully realize their potential, become responsible citizens and ethical leaders. And that is one of the rights to turn society around for the positive, if all it is done, it is done right.
My biggest success in life has been my ability to overcome my challenges and achieve my dream life. My challenge was becoming pregnant in senior high school, which I thought my dream was shattered. I couldn’t become the person I wanted to be in future. I couldn’t go to school again. I couldn’t go to work to help my family overcome the poverty. But I was able to put myself together, go back to school, complete successfully, get scholarship, go back to school, continue to further my education, complete successfully.
Now I’m working, running my own business and doing a social venture, and that is success to me. I realize that life doesn’t end with where I thought it should, and I realize that my background and my experience doesn’t limit me. My scars only reminds me of where I’ve been, but it doesn’t limit me and determine where I will be. And same way for my business, we are successful at another step.
Why am I saying this? Because from the start of the project, we are one year old now and we’ve gone through a lot, we’ve been able to learn from our challenges and then make the necessary resolutions so the business is successful at one step. We began with the production of 500 bags of mushroom, and now we are ready to hit our first target, which is 3000 bags of mushroom every three months.
We want to go into bigger production so we can harvest more and be able to supply to the people where they get their groceries. We also look forward to training more people in mushroom production and insighting the interest of the youth in agriculture. They look upon agriculture with a different eye, but I want to help them see it from a different direction. So we look forward to training more young women, at least 20 young women in a year into mushroom and agriculture production.
And what brings me fulfilment and happiness is also about helping the less privileged in society. As the business is committed to the social aspects it seeks to contribute a percentage of the profits, 5% of profits, and from production to supports the Empowered Youth Foundation, my foundation that is into empowering young women in rural communities. Aside that it also seeks to give a soft launch to workers in the business.
So as I speak now, I’ve been able to support four women to start and improve their own businesses growing up and getting a bit more mature, I realize that success is about being fulfilled in life. Identifying something you are passionate about and being able to achieve that thing. Then you need attitude and skills, perseverance very, very necessary. That is one thing I’ve grown to learn from my experiences. You need a spirit of persistence, never giving up. You should always stay focused on your dream.