My story with 100 entrepreneurs in Africa - Meet the colorful life of April, a fashionable girl in Kenya
April has been in Africa for more than a decade, having worked for banks such as Shanghai Electric Power and Standard Chartered Bank, and found love in Africa – Mr Chan, who was running for Mr Singapore. She has two children. Become an international family.In the courtyard of a cafe in central Nairobi, the sun shines through the leaves, a gentle breeze blows and the aroma of coffee fills the air. I sat opposite April as she told her movie-like life story.
April’s love affair with Africa began when she was a student. At that time, she felt depressed in China and could not find interest, so she bravely set foot on the road to go abroad. First, I went to Taiwan, where I was exposed to the concept of social enterprise and became interested in Africa. She travels alone to Tanzania and embarks on a journey full of surprises.
In Tanzania, April is doing an internship as a student, and she feels satisfied with the $800 a month she earns. During the internship, she explored and was curious about everything. She also met her husband here. At that time, my husband had resigned from the big company and was ready to start his own business. Although the boss disapproves of their relationship, believing that he is unreliable and 12 years older than April, April is attracted to his good looks and talent, and he is a former winner of the Mr. Singapore Contest.
When April worked in a state-owned enterprise, she showed a warm, lively, and solid personality. She got acquainted with the drivers, learned the local language, and taught them to sing. The leader appreciated her and felt that she could deal with local people, so she was recruited into the project team. This state-to-state investment project is a rare opportunity for April, a recent graduate. Many members of the project team are engineers and few speak English, so April takes on the task of dealing with international organizations. She works for a state-owned company in Tanzania, earning 6,000 to 7,000 yuan a month and enjoying regular employee benefits.
April worked for Standard Chartered Bank as a relationship manager for five years. However she felt that there was a limit to what she could do in a large organization, so she resolutely decided to leave and challenge her own height. Her first entrepreneurial project was to hold an Asian Experience Day with African influencers, earning profits through sponsorship and experience fees to let people feel the charm of Chinese culture. Even the Kenyan Embassy sponsored the event.
However, the arrival of the pandemic disrupted her plans. A series of China-related events originally held with the cooperative entrepreneurship center could not be carried out, and the cooperative institutions disappeared after the epidemic. Out of desperation, April started to get involved in the production and sale of handicrafts. She likes to buy handicrafts herself and has met many craftsmen. She thought there were people in the Chinese market who liked these special things as much as she did, so she decided to give it a try. Although the business faced challenges in the early stage, it was difficult to make a profit without selling the whole batch, and the epidemic also made it difficult to participate in domestic exhibitions, April was full of confidence in the future.
She believes that now there are more exchanges, more Chinese people are coming, live broadcasting is becoming more and more developed, and you can take the B-end channel, and online channel, and make the channel bigger. She saw that her partner made a high profit on Alibaba. April once saw an African wood carving work, which was carved by an African woman. Her figure was erect and her eyes were firm, which was full of strength. This work made April feel the tenacity and bravery of African women. Another time, April attended a celebration of an African tribe and saw people wearing colorful traditional costumes and dancing merrily. She was caught up in the warm atmosphere. April realized that the warmth and energy of African culture are so moving. I believe there is a market for distinctive African handicrafts in China.