Regina started by carrying a few books and biscuits to sell.
She traveled from school to school, and door to door as a street venter. In the beginning, her profits were around $50-$60 USD a month. Applying the lessons, she learned from her mentors after one year she not only paid off her first and second micro-loans, but she had saved $255 USD.
With Regina’s smile and outgoing personality, she soon had many regular customers. Determined to grow her business Regina qualified for a third loan of about $300 USD where she opened a small table-top book shop near the SDA primary school in the community where she lived.
Regina continued to look for ways to improve her small shop. She took pride in keeping her table very clean and organized.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit her community Regina’s husband Emmanuel lost his job. It was a struggle for their whole family. Students were not attending school in person like before, and so they didn’t need to buy their books from Regina. Their family’s income was dramatically reduced. Regina was glad that she had applied the principle of savings to her personal life.
Regina continually looks for ways to improve her shop. With the ongoing mentoring and support from Mentors International Regina started adding more products to her store. She has even become a wholesaler for many products and other shop owners buy their supplies from her.
Regina convinced her husband Emmanuel to attend the business development classes as well. Today he works side-by-side with Regina and is her personal secretary and shop attendant.
Today, Regina owns a big provisions shop and is making an average profit of about $187 USD a month. She can provide her family with nutritious meals three times daily, and her four kids are now back to school.
Regina and her family are now living happily. “We are most grateful to Mentor International in Ghana” is what they told us when we visited them.
