Introduction
I am Haiat Magzoub Abdoun, a mother of five: Wisal (have a B A in Arts from Cairo University in Khartoum), Dalal (have an M Sc in Planning from university of Khartoum and B Sc in Architecture from University of Khartoum), Wafaa (have an MBA from University of Khartoum and B A in Arts from University of Khartoum), Mohamed (have an MBA from UMST, and B Sc in Mechanical Engineering from University of Khartoum), Ahmed (have a B Tech in Electronics Engineering from University of Sudan) all are married and living with their families.
I am also a Sudanese Business woman; I own a tannery (Suliman Tannery) and an import/export company (Sulitan International Co. Ltd), a board member of:
- Council of Arab Business women
- Sudanese Businesswomen Federation
- Sudanese Kuwaiti friendship council
- Future For Us Organization
Background
I got married at 17 and lived like a princess in my husband's palace for 20 years; he was my whole life, my husband, my friend we got gifted with five angles, three beautiful girls and two boys, my role was raising the kids and his was to provide us with the essentials of life.
He was a raw cowhides exporter, he used to buy raw hides from slaughterhouses, cure with salt and drying and then export and it was his family business, he was the manager of the company and a partner with his father.
For me during his life I had no idea about his work, and all at a sudden, this changed … he had a sudden heart attack and it was a fatal one and he passed away, his age was only 48 years.
Since his death, my life had never been the same; I found myself in the middle of a storm without any shelter, I am left with five small kids in my lab, and I don't have any experience in life, and for the irony of destiny, after fifteen days from the death of my husband, his father passed away.
I found myself in the middle of a grater battle with my husband's family on the heritage of my husband as he was in partnership with his father; I had to fight with his brothers on the shares of the properties and the continuity of the company, through this I felt that my family is on the gates of hell, I couldn't stop thinking of the future and what am I going to do?
I decided to take over my husband's place and work in leather trading field but I didn't know from where to start but even with all of these challenges I decided to fight and stand for my family's future. And I was sure that I will make it.
I started by going to my husband's warehouse, making a meeting with all his staff and told them that I work will continue same as before though I myself didn't know how. I started looking in his books and it was the first time for me to see accounting books, I sat with the foreman and let him give me an idea about the process of preparation of hides for export from receiving greed hides till classification and belting bales for export, I sat with the accountant and went through the suppliers accounts and made an idea about them then made a meeting with them raw suppliers and told them that work will continue as usual, I went to the bank and went through the banking procedures of export and I started contacting the customers outside and also told them that I am ready to fulfill all commitments with the same quality that they used to receive.
My main goal was keeping things going same way as it was during my husband's life; I wanted to keep his name and business for his sons.
In the beginning I felt the resistance from the society as you can imagine in the eighties for a woman to work how difficult it was not to mention in a conservative society like Sudan and the challenge was for me to succeed and I did it.
Professional issue
Today after more than twenty years, I have a modern tannery that is exporting leather in processed form to Europe and Asia and planning to expand vertically in the processing of leather into crust which is a more advanced stage.
We have a good share of our local market and with the help of my elder son I have more time for social work in the trade union and other community development programs
Personal issue
On the personal level I can say that I have completed my mission and raised my kids to the highest standard that any mother can deem of for her kids.
I am not saying that it was an easy road to walk; I have always been challenged in all aspects of life, with all the stress of work and coming back home to face teenage troubles, study difficulties, emotional challenges, relationships and other issues that can face a caring mother.
I think there is a reason for all of this to happen, it is believing in yourself, I had never lost faith and was always sure that I can do it, whenever I felt exhausted or frustrated, I looked at my children eyes and I could see the future, the hope and all what I could think of was that I am nearer to achieve my goal and that gave all the power, whenever I saw one of my kids getting high grades in an exam or making a successful step in life or building a family, I felt that all the troubles I went through were worth it and all what I could do was to try harder and work more.
I urge you all to believe in yourselves and I promise you that you achieve the impossible, if I could do it, you can, all what you need it patience and persistence.