“I realized early that making it in life doesn’t always dependent on an academic foundation. I always had this inner ambition to make it in life in whatever pursuit I chose,” she said in a recent interview.
As a teenager, Tsuro decided to move to Mutare. She settled in the sprawling high density suburb of Sakubva. But she found it hard to make it on her own until ‘Good Samaritan’ Ethel Chirubvu, a seasoned tailor, offered to take her in.
“She taught me how to sew, a career that was to sustain me later in life. I was also taught how to be self-reliant and this enabled me to stay on my own,” said Tsuro.
Tailoring shops
Tsuro worked as an assistant to Chirubvu, who had established many tailoring shops in Mutare and Rusape. She learnt various designing, tailoring and knitting skills. Her employer also sent her back to school where she continued learning up to form four.
“I learnt tailoring and knitting skills that later made me self-reliant in life. I developed a passion for tailoring and knitting and started making different types of garments for people,” she said.
In 2008 her employer relocated to Rusape and closed the Mutare shops as the economy went into a nose dive. Left with nothing but her knowledge and skills Tsuro found the going tough.
But in 2010 Tsuro’s dream started taking shape when she was introduced to The Young Women in Enterprise (YWE) programme, funded by Family Support Trust (FAST). The programme helps adolescent girls and young women, aged 15 to 22, in low-income areas.
How to plan
It is aimed at educating and empowering them to avoid problems such as HIV and AIDS and to create employment.
“We focus on training the girls on how to use tools to plan, implement and manage a small business. We also link them to markets and micro finance organisations. We have empowered people like Chipo Tsuro with an emphasis on the importance of savings,” said programmes director, Last Kadzima.
He said Tsuro had excelled in mini-business plan competitions, which identified her promising business idea. “The programme has allowed some talented young girls to become successful entrepreneurs to further advance their businesses,” Kadzima added. The programme, originally piloted in 2005, has already made a big difference in young women’s’ lives.
Vision
Tsuro needed to stitch together her entrepreneurial vision of producing and selling tailored and knitted designs. “Through the YWE, l learned new business skills and used that, together with the $640 seed capital that I won in the YWE business plan competition, to launch a shop for my products,” she said.
Currently she employs four other young women and believes that within 10 years she will be running a very successful business with many employees and in many locations. Using the YWE training, Tsuro has become very popular with customers and organisations.
Talent
“I didn’t know that I had this talent. Besides knitting and tailoring new clothes, I also adjust second-hand clothes and cut and sew them with knitted additions to make them look even more attractive,” she said.
In 2012, realizing her popularity in designing, she decided to buy her own knitting machine. “By this time I knew what I wanted to be in life. Designing was my chosen career,” she added.
During the 2013 Zimbabwe Fashion Week, Tsuro was confident enough to display her designs, most of them a mixture of fabric material and knitted attire.
Unique brand
“Zimbabweans love their fashion. I decided to blend fabric with knitted material coming up with a unique brand that mixed both local and the exotic. The hybrid result has since become my trademark,” she said.
She now exports her products to South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana. In March this year, she was very involved in designing clothes for the participants in the ambitious MUVI TV-Ready for Marriage project.
In South Africa, she made connections with Zimbabweans living there and teamed up with fashion and beauty organizer Sharon Mubi to display her designs and showcase Zimbabwean fashion.
“I like to take my time. I like working hard but don’t rush. Careful planning and timing is the key. I feel that if I do this and invest all my energy into something, the results will be more satisfying and long lasting,” she said.
Post published in: News