LocationsFrom Home Cook to Businesswoman
August 30, 2022
We are delighted to see the successes of our beneficiaries after two years of our projects to support youth and entrepreneurship for social cohesion, peace and sustainable development. It is not easy for women in remote areas to gain economic stability, but the heroine of our story, Zhanara Lapazova, has succeeded.
How did you start?
My name is Zhanara Lapazova. I grew up in the town of Kerben in the Jalalabad region. Since childhood, I was brought up as a goal-oriented and confident girl. I love cooking, especially flour dishes. It is a real creativity when you can make various interesting and tasty dishes with dough. My relatives and guests have always praised my cooking and enjoyed tasting my new recipes, noting that they taste better than the ones sold in cafes. That is when I had the idea of opening my own cafe and giving the residents of Kerben the opportunity to taste the food prepared by my own hands.
It was said and done. I opened my cafe in June 2018. The number of customers increased day by day, and they especially liked my dumplings, which were of 5 different kinds. However, due to expensive rent and production costs, my cafe was not making the enough profit and I had to close it. But I still continued to do what I loved. I made dumplings at home, froze them and sold them as homemade semi-finished products. I was selling about 200 packs of 450 grams a month. It was difficult manual work, requiring a lot of energy, attention, and perseverance. At some point I got desperate and wanted to give up because it was impossible to increase the volume because of a small freezer and I lacked other special kitchen equipment too. It all cost a lot of money, which I didn't have.
In November 2020, I saw an advertisement for a UNDP programme to support rural entrepreneurs. The programme included training in the basics of entrepreneurship and grant support. After consulting with my husband, we decided to apply and fill in the registration form. I had heard that people write projects and win grants, but for me it seemed something unrealistic. But a miracle happened: in April 2021, I was told that my application form had been accepted and I was invited to a training session, saying that I should present my project in order to receive grant support. I could not believe my luck, and I still wondered if I was dreaming.
Much-needed support
The training lasted for five days. On the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul, I met other participants of the programme who also dreamed of achieving their goals, just like me. This training was extremely important to me, as we were taught the basics of business there. Besides, listening to speakers such as Daniyar Amanaliev, I got a powerful impetus to move forward and not give up. I presented my project, and I received a grant from UNDP, which I received in the form of equipment: 2 freezers and a dough mixer, which I had requested in my business application. I was very happy because these exact equipments would let me increase my production turnover. This was only the beginning.
When I returned home, I started working hard. Thanks to two refrigerators and a dough mixer I increased production by 5 times, hired two women and my husband helped with providing ingredients for dumplings production. But I still needed a dough compactor and a chopper grinder to automate manual labour, which I was able to get from the second grant round. Now dumpling production has increased tenfold. I hired another person and started thinking about expanding the market. However, another problem arose: the dumplings defrosted quickly and spoiled. I decided to try my luck a third time and again applied for the purchase of a refrigerated vehicle in order to sell the products outside of my village, Kerben. My application was accepted and I was given a grant for 70% of the cost of the refrigerated vehicle. We covered the remaining amount from our own funds. We were incredibly pleased. It seemed as if all this was not happening to our family and business. I'm insanely glad that I didn't give up when I was making dumplings at home by hand.
New horizons
Thanks to grant support, our income has increased. We now sell our dumplings in 10 local grocery shops, hospitals and public institutions. Orders come from restaurants and cafes. Customers also pick up a portion of the products from their homes. Products are delivered to Tash-Kumyr, Shamaldy-Sai, Maili-Sai, Kosh-Dobo and Kara-Zhygach.
Today we are working on rebranding, developing a new design for the Dayar logo, brand concept and corporate identity. Beautiful packaging with the new logo, a car decorated with "Dayar" trademarks - all this I have never even dreamed of. But most of all I am proud of the quality of our products. Dayar home meat dumplings made to a secret recipe, suits many tastes, because in spite of automation of some processes we still make dumplings manually. It is because of that the dough remains soft and tender, and the dumplings taste delicious. I feel a real sense of happiness when products are becoming more and more sought-after and recognised.
I plan to expand my range of semi-finished products (dumplings, dumplings, meatballs, cutlets) and enter the supermarket. I also plan to provide services for making salads, boorsoks, various chicken and fish dishes for weddings/anniversaries. There are many plans and they are achievable. You just need to keep at it, implement them and keep moving forward.
Zhanara Lapazova was supported between 2020-2021 by the UNDP project 'Strengthening Community Resilience and Regional Cooperation to Prevent Violent Extremism in Central Asia' with financial support from the Government of Japan and advisory support from business accelerator John Galt.
