She donates her profits to children in need
Beads in pretty colours, in white or in black mother-of-pearl threaded on a string make attractive bracelets. Perhaps with a glittering silver detail, a letter or a message.
Alaa threads a needle and chooses beads from little bowls. She sits on a pile of cushions on the floor in a little room she has arranged as her studio. The walls are decorated with lots of sketches and pictures she has painted.
She makes a bracelet every day.
– The customer decides what it is to look like, she says.
She is in her last year of the economics programme at Ekbackeskolan in Osby. During their last year all the students have to start their own UF-business.
She has written down all her orders in a notebook . The list grows longer day by day.
– I was a bit worried about how I could promote my business, especially now when corona is prevalent, Alaa says.
She is pleased with the response she has had. Customers have found their way to her via Instagram, aohopesforetag, and by mouth to mouth. But now she wants to reach out to even more people.
”I like working with children and old people”Alaa Alhassan
Most of all I'd like to find a place where I can display my bracelets, here in Broby or locally, she says, and is grateful for tip-offs.
– I'll donate my profits to an organisation called Molham Volunteering Team, which helps needy children in Syria.
Alaa has a big heart. She thinks of others and what is good for them. School takes up a lot of her time. But she still has time for voluntary work and has an extra job in the home-help service.
”Finding a job wasn't easy. I wrote letters and made a lot of phone-calls”Alaa Alhassan
Young Entrepreneur (UF) businesses
Young Entrepreneurship. The course, called Young Entrepreneurship, helps pupils start up, develope and run down a UF business for a year.
A UF business has most often three to five members. The course is run in one or more of the programmes on the upper high school syllabus.
Research shows that UF entrepreneurs start more businesses and are less often out of work, earn more and more often attain leading positions.
UF (Young Entrepreneurship) is a politically unaffiliated non-profit training organisation. It is part of the global organisation Junior Achievement. Since 1980 it has educated upper high school pupils in Young Entreprerneurship. Since 2010 also in compulsory schools.
Source: ungforetagsamhet.se, Wikipedia
”At last I met a boss who listened and gave me a chance. I'm very glad for that”Alaa Alhassan
– I like working with children and old people, she says.
– But finding a job wasn't easy. I wrote letters and made a lot of phone-calls. At last I met a boss who listened and gave me a chance. I'm very glad for that.
– You have to be persistent.
Footnote: Alaa Alhassan's story was published i Kristianstadsbladet. Since then the AlltMöjligt workshop has got in touch with her. 'I can have my jewellery there, that makes me very happy', she says.
