AMINTA’S STORY: Part 1

She lives in a village near here and is a lot like you. This is Aminta. She lives in a village near here and is a lot like you. She is worried. What do you think she is thinking about? You should encourage discussion about the types of problems concerns Aminta may have. There could be many issues relating to health, income, relationships, etc. that people may raise but it is likely that someone will mention children. Mothers usually worry about their children.

You are right! One of her big concerns is her children. She would like them to go to school but she can’t afford the notebooks and pens they need. She would also like them to have better food.

Aminta has saved 10,000. She wants to use the money to start a small enterprise from which she can get an income. She decides she will make tie-dyed cloth like her sister-in-law.

As Aminta works she thinks… “I will make 5 pieces of cloth and sell them for 2,500 each. Then I will make 12,500.” She is very excited about her idea.

Next day Aminta goes to town and stops at the first store she comes to. She buys the supplies she needs and is surprised to find she has to use all her savings. So she has to walk home. Remind participants that this means Aminta has spent 10,000 on the items she has decided she needs to undertake her tie-dying activity. They may already have worked out that Aminta could make a surplus of 2,500 if she does indeed sell five pieces of cloth for 12,500. This is an approximate profit figure (it is not exact because some of the purchases are for items that will be kept and used again, i.e. overheads or fixed costs).

Back home Aminta gets to work… It takes a long time as she has never done tie-dying before. You might encourage discussion about how difficult tie-dying is and whether it would be an easy thing to do if you have never done it before.

Why is her husband upset? What is happening here? Why is her husband upset? What could Aminta be thinking? It is clear that her husband is not happy with her and is complaining about the cleaning and cooking that she has not done and that the children are crying. He does not like the fact that she has not done her usual work around the house. Participants may wish to discuss how she could have avoided this situation, e.g. telling her husband what she is planning to do, getting help while she is busy with the tie-dying. Ask what is likely to happen to her enterprise if her husband is not happy with it. Aminta may be thinking “My husband may be cross now but he will be happy when he sees the 12,500 I am going to earn”.

Aminta goes outside to collect her cloth and stops in alarm Aminta goes outside to collect her cloth and stops in alarm. What can she see? Encourage discussion about why some of the cloth dying has not been successful. It is likely to go back to her inexperience with this activity.

Aminta hoped to make 12,500 by selling 5 pieces of cloth. How much will she be able to make now? How much has she already spent? What do you think she should do? She will only be able to sell three pieces of cloth. If she can sell these at 2,500 each, she will be able to make 7,500. It may be a good idea to use real or mock money to illustrate these calculations, e.g. show participants 12,500 and then remove 5,000 to represent the damaged cloth, thus leaving 7,500. She has spent 10,000 of course and now she cannot recover that much with her three pieces of cloth. Encourage discussion about what she should do. Most will agree that she should still sell the pieces of cloth that she has to get some of her money back. How many pieces of cloth will she be able to sell?

Aminta gets up early next morning to go to the market. What does she see when she gets there? What do you think she is saying to herself? Encourage discussion about the fact that there are many women selling very similar pieces of tie-dye cloth to Aminta’s. Participants will also note that the price at which they are selling the cloth is only 1,000 per piece. So Aminta will be realising that at best she can only hope to get 3,000 for her cloth and not 7,500. Thus her loss will be even greater.

Aminta sits in the market all day. People bargain with her. Eventually she sells each piece of cloth for 800. She is very discouraged and can’t understand how her big idea went so wrong. Some facts to notice here are the length of time she has to spend at the market. Perhaps she thought she would be home by lunchtime and obviously it means that once again she cannot do her work at home. You can encourage some discussion on bargaining and whether that means prices must always be lower. Ask participants how people can secure higher prices when there is competition and introduce ideas about quality or unique designs or packaging which can add value.

Next day she asks her friends. What do you think they are saying to her? How could she have avoided all these problems? Encourage the participants to consider these issues: She could have found out how to produce good quality tie-dye; she could have worked with an experienced person first or practised on old pieces of cloth. This would have made her realise how much time tie-dying would take and she could have made plans to get help around the house. She could have visited the market first to find out the selling price of cloth, how long it takes to sell, why people buy from one person rather than another. She could have found out where other women get their supplies and how much they pay for their materials and how much profit they expect to make in a day or week or month.

Aminta’s story continues in Part 2