For two years, Bassam struggled to keep his small, frozen foods grocery store alive. He worked alone; kept an improvised, often inaccurate, inventory system and would hope to sell enough products to customers, who had the choice of three other similar stores, on the same street. Keeping his doors open was a daily strain.

When a Tamweelcom manager dropped into his store one day, on one of his frequent visits to other businesses along that street, Bassam decided to have a meeting with him.

With his first loan of 500 JD’s, Bassam bought a new freezer and expanded his selection of frozen foods; he bought frozen meats which he cut and packaged, according to customer request. And heeding the advice of his Tamweelcom manager, Bassam introduced discounted prices which attracted more customers.

Bassam repaid his loan, and with the support of his case manager, Bassam obtained a second loan of 1200 JD‘s and opened another grocery store, four meters up the road. The second store specialized in yoghurt, cheese, pickles and processed meats. He hired three employees for both stores; and an accountant for the separate administration of each store. Five years later, Bassam is planning to open a third store, a butcher shop for fresh poultry.

“The hard times are over”, Bassam says with clear optimism, “So much has come out of nothing, I am so grateful for the opportunity Tamweelcom has given me. I was finding it difficult to keep one store afloat, and now I have two with the hopes and abilities to open a third one, God willing.”