Heba at her medical laboratory (Photo Credit: CARE)
Written by: Hind Abbas
Heba can vividly recall when the war started. She was woken up at 2 in the morning to the sounds of loud explosions and airplanes hovering in the sky. Her house shook vigorously and it felt as though everything was crumbling around her. For many days and months afterword, she and her family lived in constant fear of being targeted; many of her neighbors and friends were injured and there was great suffering around her. At just 27 years old, and with all this happening around her, Heba started questioning her purpose in life.
Heba lives in Aden, a major port city in southern Yemen on the Red Sea. The city is one of the cities most affected by the ongoing conflict in Yemen. Before March 2015, when the conflict escalated, Heba was a fresh graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Clinical Laboratory Science, and she had just started working in a clinic. According to Heba, before the war, the cost of medical tests and basic medicine was affordable for most people. Currently, due to the failing state of the economy and scarcity of products, this has become very expensive and inaccessible for most people.
Inspired by a need to help people to access better medical care and to get correct diagnosis of illnesses, Heba made it her mission to start a clinical laboratory. She wanted the services in her clinic to be of good quality and affordable for most people in the community.
When she heard about the opportunity for economic empowerment offered by CARE, Heba saw this as a chance for her to fulfill her mission. She applied for and was accepted as a participant in the Women Economic Empowerment project implemented by CARE. This project aims to empower women in Yemen to take charge of their own lives and find strength and resources to become successful entrepreneurs.
“The first day I attended a business workshop, I was filled with joy and anticipation; I was supremely focused because I wanted to understand every single word that was said,” Heba said. “This program has empowered me and gave me the strength I need to become an entrepreneur.”
By remaining attuned to the needs of her community and striving to meet them, Heba says she found her purpose in life. Through a loan received from CARE-run project, Heba opened a clinical laboratory and named it “The Achievement Laboratory”. She thanks CARE for making her dream a reality.
For more on our work in Yemen, click here.