Chad’s one-woman leathergoods industry
18/01/2019
Her entrepreneurial efforts have brought Ms Baroud to the attention of the World Bank, which invited her onto a course in Tanzania in 2017 to learn how to dry and store fresh food so that people can buy and eat it all year round. She returned to Chad and built a solar dryer on the roof of her home in the capital, N’Djamena, and is now producing dried, locally sourced fruit, vegetables, meat and fish.
Another new venture involves making beauty products from local ingredients such as shea butter, beeswax, honey and sesame oil.
It was this focus on local raw materials that led Awatif Baroud to set up Soum Soum in the first place. In a recent conversation with Radio France Internationale, she said that Chad is “rich in livestock”, but exports most of the hides and skins that result from animal slaughter. When she did come across a functioning tannery, she began to buy leather, established a team of artisans with a knowledge of traditional craftsmanship and launched the leathergoods brand, making bags, wallets and other products. She achieved this with $100 she had managed to save.
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