By Ndanatsiwa Tagwireyi,
Unpaid care work takes most of a woman’s productive time as she is expected to cook for the family and do other home administration duties without any payment for the services.
However, some women have been making progress in countering unpaid care work through monetising the skills they learnt in the kitchen.
This has seen a rise in women starting and managing their businesses such as cake baking, which have fast become financial havens for many nowadays.
Such is the story of Helen Dube (25) who hails from the small mining town of Zvishavane. Dube decided to embark on a cake baking business to utilise her kitchen skills and make income from her entrepreneurial venture.
She reminisces how she started by baking for her family before deciding to take her skill to another level.
“Being expected to cook as a girl child made me passionate about cooking and made me enjoy being in the kitchen,” Dube revealed to the Women’s Weekly Journal.
“From a tender age, I was always passionate about working with flour and I started by baking scones for family breakfast and for my high school food and nutrition lessons.”
Dube who is a politics and public administration graduate also revealed that baking cakes gives her financial freedom, given the fact that formal employment is hard to come by these days.
She admits that her venture allows her creativity to shine and keeps her busy and focused, which in turn is a form of escapism from unemployment challenges facing many young people.
“I bake as per order and I bake about six to eight cakes per month and something like sixty to eighty cupcakes in the same month,” Dube who draws inspiration from her close relative’s venture ‘Bake World by Chido’ said.
“I developed a passion to help people express themselves through baked treats as I believe that every cake has a story to tell.”
The 25 year old entrepreneur also told Women’s Weekly Journal that she takes advantage of a change in people’s lifestyle as several events now require cakes that create lasting memories.
“Changing lifestyle of people affects this business in a positive way as many celebrations require many cakes that people may need,” Dube told Women’s Weekly Journal adding that she is optimistic that in the near future she is going to have her own well established cake company where people would buy and enjoy her treats.
Dube also admits that she takes advantage of the digital age to refine her baking skills and also to source for customers that keep her moving forward.
“For now, I have gained some of my clients through Facebook and Whatsapp advertising and also through clients who refer their friends,” Dube told the Women’s Weekly Journal.
“Learning is a continuous process and sometimes I refine my cake baking skills through the help of YouTube bakers.”
The youthful entrepreneur who is slowly claiming her space in the cake baking business believes that women have a lot to show to the world if they are willing to get financial freedom and reverse some preconceived ideas that limit women to the kitchen and other duties under unpaid care work.
“I encourage other young girls hoping to start their business to be ambitious and self-driven, to challenge themselves and never be scared of taking risks and also to discover their passion and work on that,” the youthful determined Dube tipped other women, “I believe we can all do it, nothing is impossible if we are just willing.”