An Egyptian entrepreneur pays it forward
Doaa Mohammed Bakr Turky is one of just two girls in her 12th grade class at an agricultural school in Esna, Egypt, a lush community on the West Bank of the Nile, south of Luxor. And until recently, she was also the only one of her five siblings attending school.
The 18-year-old lives with her immediate family alongside 200 relatives in a rural community in Upper Egypt.
Doaa’s family is poor. Her father Mohammed is the facility keeper and gardener at Doaa’s school, but he makes barely enough money to support his eldest daughter’s education.
At school, Doaa and her classmates learn modern farming practices, how to raise livestock and to make dairy products in a lab. In Egypt’s fertile south, where there is great agricultural potential, a network of these USAID-supported schools train a new generation of growers and breeders.
This year, Esna School also took part in an entrepreneurship competition where students submitted proposals for original business ideas.
The program received over 200 proposals from students at 10 schools — including Doaa’s idea to start a duck farming business. Doaa's proposal was selected and she received the equivalent $200 in in-kind assistance to buy 140 ducklings to start her business.
Doaa’s family had raised ducks in the past, so her mother taught her how to properly care for the ducklings.
“Every day I would feed them, cut them clover, make them swim and sleep, talk to them and love them like my kids I don’t even have,” she says.
Doaa didn’t know it at the time, but her ducks were about to change everything.
After selling the first batch of ducklings, Doaa was able to buy 140 more.
She also had enough money remaining to buy her siblings school uniforms and textbooks, and the family could finally afford to put all of their children through school for the year.
With what remained, Doaa invested in chickens to sell eggs and poultry. Her growing business became a crucial source of household income.
“She boosted our income and improved our living situation, compared to how we were living,” said Doaa’s mother, Amal. “Thank God, we were able to buy everything we needed.”
“I am very happy. My father, my mother, my uncles, and the whole family is happy that I have become a big business woman,” says Doaa. “I make them proud.”
But there was one thing that made Doaa’s parents even prouder than her business acumen: her generosity.
Doaa began selling ducks at a discount to those who couldn’t afford to pay full price and gifting them to the most vulnerable.
“My mum and dad taught me to treat people well,” says Doaa. “To give to the poor and the needy.”
Today, Doaa hopes to invest in more animals, such as cows, for milk and meat. Meanwhile, her impact on the people around her grows every day.
“We hope for the whole family to have similar projects,” says Doaa’s mother.
Across rural southern Egypt, poverty is rife and economic opportunities are limited, despite the area’s tremendous agricultural potential. Young women like Doaa often forgo their educations to marry young and raise a family.
USAID seeks to lessen the poverty experienced in communities like these by increasing the productivity and employability of Egypt’s youth. USAID-supported agricultural technical high schools teach thousands of Egyptians to become better farmers, growers, dairy producers and breeders.
The competition Doaa’s school participated in was organized by the Premium Project for Egyptian Small Growers and Blue Moon Ltd. and was funded by USAID. Teachers there and at nine other schools were trained to help test the feasibility of and implement their students’ agribusiness ideas. Students with winning ideas like Doaa’s were given around $200 to start their business ventures.
Through projects like these, USAID helps communities foster entrepreneurship, better agricultural practices and lessen poverty — one idea at a time.
Video by Dave Cooper and photos by Thomas Cristofoletti for USAID
