Grace often comes in an unexpected way. Such was the experience of Dewi. One day, her favorite floor mattress was torn and could not be used anymore. But, it was a pity if the mattress was thrown away just like that. So, Dewi decided to repurpose the mattress by making smaller stuffed mattresses for children’s toys.
The result was not many. Only 5 units resulted from that small part of the original floor mattress, which then she took to a kindergarten to sell. Unexpectedly, all sold out. Then, Dewi made another 10 mattresses from the remainder and all were sold out too. Her friends even asked her to make more mattresses so they can sell them to different stores. One of her friends then ordered 100 mattresses. Dewi had to ask for a down payment from her friend because she did not have enough funds to buy the materials.
The mattresses were sold at Rp. 15,000. Then, the store charged about Rp. 20,000- 25,000 to customers. With the various kinds of orders that kept coming in. Dewi was producing almost 600 mattresses every month, she even hired 3 people to help her to fulfill the orders.
“If I were to do it myself, I would only be able to make 100 mattresses, and those all needed one month to complete”, said Dewi while laughing.
But as her business grew, an incident happened. A store that belong toDewi’s customers was evicted from their premises. As a result, Dewi lost around Rp3,500,000 worth of inventory. Although she lost her source of income, Dewi still had to pay her employees.
Dewi was able to get additional funds when her friends invited her to join YCAB Foundation’s cooperative. With a loan of Rp1,000,000 Dewi slowly rebuilt her business. YCAB Foundation’s cooperative gave a new hope for Dewi. With the funds she received, she could buy whatever materials she needed and also manage to save a little. Dewi could renovate her house with the extra income she now has.
The other dream Dewi has is that her children can continue their education. She believes that education is one of the keys for her children to have a better future.
