Mother’s Day: Stories from two women who took risks to make their ‘children’s lives better’

AMMAN — “When my youngest daughter was diagnosed with leukaemia at age two-and-a-half, I knew she was going to be deprived of a normal childhood,” said Dawoud Dawoud.

Dawoud is one of three mothers brought together by their children’s circumstances. The women all had children diagnosed with cancer and met at the King Hussein Cancer Centre before deciding to establish a home-cooking business.

Between leading financially-challenged lives and wanting to provide the best for their children, Dawoud told The Jordan Times that they were all at one point “in a state of despair”.

She added: “It is hard when you want to give your child all you can, so they do not miss out on life anymore than they already do, but you can’t.”

When her daughter was 10 years old and after meeting her two business partners Dawoud said she had an epiphany. All three mothers needed financial support; they were all housewives and they all enjoyed cooking.

So Dawoud said she thought about turning their love for their children into a small yet tangible home-cooking project.

“When we started the business, our main goal was not to rely on people’s sympathies. We wanted to establish ourselves without feeling like our success was a result of indirect charity, so no one knew our backstory” Dawoud said.

Dawoud told The Jordan Times that their business in Jabal Hussein has since taken off. She spoke on behalf of her business partners, describing the impact their project has had on their lives.

“Because of our small project, we are finally able to shower our children with toys and other things that make them temporarily forget their pain,” she said.

Nesreen, another mother who preferred that her last name be omitted, told The Jordan Times that after her husband became unemployed in 2003, she only had a month to come up with a source of income to put her two children through college and the other two through primary school.

“I do not have an impressive degree and neither does my husband,” she said.

After saving all of their money to open a small convenience shop, Nesreen’s business is now her family’s only source of income.

“My children made me take a risk and put all my life’s savings into a business I knew very little about because I had a glimpse of hope that it would make their lives better,” she said. “Thankfully, it did.”