Beggar turns into entrepreneur
It is the early morning of December 20 2005 near the Lilongwe Bus Depot and people are rushing to their various work stations to beat the morning rush hour and reach their destinations on time.
Some people are boarding buses, others are on bicycles and those who cannot afford bus fares are just walking.
Among those rushing to work is a physically challenged middle aged man on a wheel chair who wants to reach the Paul Kagame junction near the Lilongwe Hotel to beg for alms from well wishers.
“I used to beg every day from 2004 because it was difficult for my relations to look after me since I was born without limbs. I used to blame God for bringing me into this world without limbs, but I did not know that one day he would smile at me and open new doors,” says Masautso Chikuse with a wide grin at Sankhani 2 Village in Traditional Authority Njewa in Lilongwe recently.
Chikuse says one day, during his routine alms begging excursions in 2006, he met a man from his home village who told him that he was just wasting time by begging instead of going back home and start farming.
He says that one day some people gave him K1 000 and he decided to join the Mpita Community Savings and Investment Promotion (Comsip) cooperative where he paid K500 as an entry fee and bought shares worth K500.
In 2007, when he had about K5 000 shares, he borrowed K10 000 and started selling salt.
After a while, he borrowed K20 000 which he used to buy a camera that completely changed his life.
“Even though I had difficulties with mobility, I took pictures of a lot of people to the extent that six months later, I opened a grocery. My shop is one of the most popular in this village maybe because people wonder how a man who used to beg can become a shop owner,” says Chikuse.
Apart from the shop, Chikuse has got a beautiful house, he rears chickens, goats, pigeons and he plans to buy pigs later in the year.
Chikuse who was born in 1982 is married and has a son.
He advises those who are disabled and still begging in streets of the country:
“The streets are very dangerous places to make a living from and it is for your own good that you leave and start something profitable.”
