Ida and her vision

Pin It

I first met Ida a couple of years ago and couldn’t help but be aware of that grace and almost fluid movement that comes naturally to some women while others of us (okay: me) manage to trip over our own toes.

She also has that semi regal bearing and a hauteur about her that can kick in just as readily as her full and infectious laugh, so I recently asked her a question that’s been intriguing me ever since:

Why does a middle class, university-educated, well travelled black African woman get involved with the plight of poor women in the villages of Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya and Madagascar?

“Because I can”

“I’ve always had a very, very high sense of what is fair – and the situation I see these women in – they have no control over their circumstances – I could easily have been one of them.”

A bit of background

Raised just outside of Kampala and following university at Saltzburg, courtesy of a scholarship from the Austrian government, Ida Horner settled in the UK, where two of her sisters were already based. She deliberately cut short a career in tourism and hotel management when she realised after a few years that, no matter how many hours she put in or unsociable shifts she was prepared to work, the combination of her colour and gender (over and above, at that time, her youth)would prevent her from progressing beyond the back office.

Ida enrolled in her next degree programme at Westminster University in London, this time in housing management and development.

This launched what was to be a successful career as a District Housing Manager and everything was going more or less to plan when at the end of 2006 Ida returned to her native Uganda for a holiday.

All change!

Visiting SW Uganda for the first time to attend a New Year’s party she found it difficult to reconcile the beauty of the land with the poverty of many of its people. At the bottom of the pile in any given African society are women: last to eat the food that they have planted, harvested and cooked to nourish their family. This was what Ida was brought face to face with when she went among those villages on that holiday: proud women, without formal education yet willing and able to work hard to sustain themselves and their families, given half a chance.

Hang on a minute: what about the grants, Aid G8 and debt cancellation? What about the high profile pop stars’ concerts that raise £/$ millions, and even royal involvement in charity? Surely all of this combines to make a meaningful difference?

Or does it?

What really happens when the bigwigs have moved on and the cameras stop rolling? It would seem that nobody actually asks these villagers, certainly not the females, what they want or need.

If they did they might, just might find what Ida discovered: that the women don’t want handouts (not that she saw evidence of anything donated that would make a meaningful and lasting difference to their lives, anyway). They produce jewellery, garments and handicrafts of great natural beauty and quality that Ida believed there would be a market for and stood a chance of selling at a fair price in the west. But they never get to meet the politicians, pop stars or princes to put their message across.

A woman on a mission

Ida’s always been a practical person. Ideas and talk are necessary and all well and good provided something tangible comes out of them. Back in the UK it was time for her to bring all her project and people management skills to work for these people she just knew she could help, so the hours in the day job gradually reduced as Ethnic Supplies was born in 2007 and swiftly took centre stage.

We haven’t discussed the logistics of getting the goods made, through customs and into the UK, let alone sold – there isn’t space or time to do that here – just let your imagination loose…

£30 a month might be a decent income for a village woman.

It would mean there would be food on the table for a family for several weeks. Another month it would pay to keep a child in high school education for a further term (though boarding, books, food, travel, uniform and any medical care costs would all be on top that); a junior school uniform could be bought for another child: not things we in the west have to worry overly about, are they?

Ida tells a story about one woman who was abandoned by her husband to cope single-handedly with raising and providing for their nine children. This, to me, begged what might be a crass question but I decided to ask it of her anyway:

Why do the women keep having children – is it their own choice, status or to look after them in later life? The answer, it seems, can be for one or a combination of many reasons: They don’t understand birth control, don’t trust it, don’t have access to it or don’t have choice – it’s not their decision – they are women…

Just how much has Ida taken on and how much can one woman alone achieve? See the next post from this interview, 2010 and the effects of the global economy on Ethnic Supplies, for the current situation.

Click the book to join us

About Linda Mattacks
Doing what you love, your bit for humankind and the planet (if that turns you on) and making a decent, let alone great living don't necessarily come in the same package! With a background of sales training, marketing and market/marketing research spanning decades, for individuals and companies across the world from micros to corporations, Linda's finally found her niche... and some truly fabulous collaborators. Female employer, employee or entrepreneur, if you're not seeing the fruits of your potential value in the marketplace why not talk to Linda? Call +44(0)7879 628 367
View all posts by Linda Mattacks →