A story of an extraordinary woman who successfully runs her business in Kadamjai, Batken province
We admire amazing stories of success, when men or women, having gone through various difficulties and overcome fears, were able to start a completely different life, enter the University of Oxford, or open a business that is not standard for the Kyrgyz society. Such stories expand imagination, they inspire, and give hope that each of us is able to study at this university, build a new life, open a trendy business.
We do not fix our attention on simple events or ordinary business, behind which, in fact, there stand extraordinary people. After all, it is precisely such simple stories of people that are equally worthy of admiration. They are simple heroes, or rather the heroines of their family, their village, their country.
In 2016 Kalyskan Shamshieva, following the appointment of her doctor husband moved from Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek to Kadamjai town located in the country’s southernmost province of Batken. For the mother of five moving to a small town with a population of just over 14,000 people was not easy, especially because at that time only few public kindergartens were operational in Kadamjai. "My children in the state kindergarten did not receive proper education, sufficient attention and even healthy food, because the kindergarten was full, there were 56 children in the group and only one teacher, there was not even a nanny," says Kalyskan.
Kalyskan believes that she is lucky with her husband, as he fully supported his wife’s desire to open her own kindergarten at the very beginning of her journey, which would equal in standards to decent private kindergartens in Bishkek city. "One can say I decided to open a kindergarten for my own children," Kalyskan says jokingly. After surveying her neighbors, acquaintances and friends, Kalyskan realized that there is large demand for a kindergarten with better standards of child care and development in Kadamjai.
"I am an accountant by profession, and after conducting a survey, taking into account the wishes of parents for a new kindergarten, we realized that it should cost at least 6,000 soms [65 EUR] per month. This is a lot of money for Kadamjai. Doubt crept into me." But, she decided to take a chance and in 2018 Kalyskan rented a building in the city center, having renovated it, she opened the brand new kindergarten. Slowly, the business expanded. Today the kindergarten has groups of different ages from nursery to preparatory, and the occupancy stands at 90%.
Certainly, the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns have affected the 8-months long closure followed by limited daycare operations, until full occupancy by early 2021. For months, Kalyskan borrowed food to get her business back up and running without lowering the standards of her kindergarten. "I am grateful to our understanding contractors, who happen to be the parents of one child in our kindergarten, I am generally grateful for the experience that I’ve been through in 2020," said the woman entrepreneur.
The practice of doing business is such that over time it is imperative to expand. In order to do that money is needed, and in the business world, this means either investments or a loan. “We have only one car and this business. We have neither house nor land. Therefore, we could not get a soft loan and a partial grant from another international organization, because we could not provide collateral,” remembers Kalyskan.
But in 2021, after passing an intense competition, Kalyskan received non-material support from the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek in the form of an electricity and heat generator that cost 120,000 soms (1300 EUR). “In winter power cuts are very common, and permit to connect to gas was not granted to our kindergarten for safety reasons,” she says. But thanks to the new backup generator the kindergarten can function uninterrupted, “This is very good for the development of children and convenient for parents.” In addition, Kalyskan also received five laptops used by teachers to conduct lessons.
Since 2019, the Entrepreneurship Support Center (ESC) has been operating in the nearby city of Batken, which was launched and operates with the support of the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek. "I confess that at least once a week I call the ESC consultants to clarify various issues on taxes, marketing, new technical regulations," says Kalyskan, laughing.
Talking about the most unexpected moments in building a business, Kalyskan expressed gratitude to the ESC consultants, who constantly kept in touch with her, especially helped in matters of accounting, taxes and even management. "What I studied at the university in management was not useful, everything is built on old theories there. In matters of personnel management I really relied a lot on the experience of the local ESC and the mini-MBA program from the OSCE Programme Office."
At the beginning of the journey Kalyskan says that she "lived in illusions", did not take into account that there would be an outflow of personnel, "We did not take into account the fact that we work in the periphery, it is very difficult to find English-speaking personnel, and if there are any, they soon leave abroad or get married, employees drain is a serious problem in Kadamjai."
According to Kalyskan, women who want to go into business should try to participate in various trainings and constantly gain new knowledge. "Without the support of my husband, I would not have coped, but a mere understanding on his part would not be enough. To really understand and give support, it is important for a man to participate at least 5-10% in his woman's business."
When asked how much she trusts her intuition in doing business, Kalyskan firmly stated, "99%! I make decisions based on my intuition, and it never fails! All this comes with experience, you just have to observe oneself."
Read more interesting stories of heroes and heroines like Kalyskan on our social networks @oscebishkek.
Since 2017, the Programme Office in Bishkek has been supporting the development of SMEs in Kyrgyzstan. In particular, to date, the OSCE Programme Office has helped launch and continues to support the work of Entrepreneurship Support Centers in Batken, Osh, Talas, Issyk-Kul and Jalal-Abad provinces. In 2020-2021, on the basis of two ESCs in Batken and Issyk-Kul provinces, the Programme Office developed a project to support women's entrepreneurship, which received the 2022 OSCE Gender Champion Award in the prestigious category "Best Project of the Year". In 2022 the project focused on women entrepreneurs in Issyk-Kul and Djalal-Abad provinces, and in 2023 the focus will shift to Talas and Djalal-Abad provinces. The Programme Office team remains committed to supporting the sustainable development of SMEs and women’s entrepreneurship in Kyrgyzstan’s provinces.