TALES FROM AROUND THE WORLD OF KIDS WHO NEVER GAVE UP
Jhesie the Businesswoman
Before the sun comes up, Jhesie is already dressed and out the door, running to her uncle’s home. The smell coming out of his house permeates the air and she can smell it before she even gets there.
Some kids dream of being entrepreneurs when they grow up, but at just 10-years-old, Jhesie is already there! Read how she became a little businesswoman and learned how to save up her well-earned money.
A delicious way to start the day
People in Jhesie’s village in the Philippines love to eat special buns called pandesal. It’s a favourite, enjoyed at breakfast with a hot coffee. Sounds delicious, right?
When she arrives at her uncle’s home early each morning, Jhesie is there to work. She takes the pandesal buns he has baked, and stacks them into boxes, ready to sell. For each bun she sells, she tracks it in her notebook and stores her earnings in a special bag.
Saving goes a long way
Jhesie soon discovered that these little buns held a big secret! When she saves a little bit of the money she makes from selling pandesal, it can add up to something big!
Usually earning anywhere from under a dollar to a dollar, Jhesie says that selling pandesal is her way of practising her business skills. Every day she would take note of her earnings.
Success smells good!
Jhesie put any money she saved up each week away for safe keeping. At the end of the year, she counted it and discovered there was enough to buy some new clothes and help her parents with home repairs, “I’m proud that some parts of our house are cement now!” she says.
Eventually, Jhesie saved enough another year to buy her family a mobile phone! Now they could stay in touch and she could learn online when her school was closed.
Big goals and big dreams are attainable!
Now, Jhesie has a really big goal! She wants to open her own restaurant.
“I’ll decorate the walls with stickers and cut out drawings of flowers, clouds, and birds to make it beautiful,” she says. “I’ll always buy chocolate ice cream for my brothers and sisters and parents. And I’ll save so much that we’ll be able to buy everything we need.”
Sponsorship gives children the opportunity to do more
Through the child sponsorship program, her friends at World Vision showed Jhesie and other children in her village how to set up a group so they could learn about saving money.
Sponsorship helps provide opportunities to children that not only change their lives, but sponsors lives, too. Learn how your support helps create lasting change, how to send your sponsored child a special gift, and more at our Resources for Sponsors page.