She quit her nursing career to venture into entreprenuership

Wise men once said human beings are born to struggle. This is because life is filled with many challenges.

Diana Gasper’s story mirrors this quite well as she left her job as a nurse assistant to venture into travel business and set up an organisation to train women on entrepreneurship plus establishing a local cooking club to bring women together.

“To be frank, about 80 per cent of what I thought I would do in a bid to succeed didn’t work out,” she says.

Diana who had worked as an assistant nurse at Kiwanja Mpaka Hospital in Mbeya Region says she had to change her career along the way, adding that her parents wanted her in the medical field.

“My parents never gave me time to choose career of my dream so I respect their decision,” says Diana.

Diana said she had always wanted to be an entrepreneur.

“After two years I told my mother that I have to go back to school to pursue my dream. My mother could not easily buy the idea due to financial constraints, thanks to my brother and my husband who assisted in paying my fees at Travel and Consultant College in Dar-es Salaam.”

After a two-year-course, I graduated and was employed by Precision Air Company Ltd.

Diana hints that it was due to her love and dedication for the new job and customers appreciated her service. “I had a basic motivation to perform well because that was my dream job,” she says.

Diana says she was always eager to get feedback from the customers she served and that is why she is now the proud director of Kinyago Travel and Stuka Tanzania.

The former deals with bookings and ticketing issues while the latter is used to motivate women and teach them about business.

Her travel firm

Diana says after gaining enough experience with Precision Air she went ahead and established her company, Kinyago Travel and Stuka Tanzania in 2014. She says her company connects customers to easily get air ticket booking within and outside Tanzania.

“We deal with those who plan to spend honeymoon in Zanzibar, breeze and join popular water sport in Zanzibar to enjoy the wildlife,” says Diana adding….

“Kinyago is dedicated to offer its clients the best experience. We provide services of high standards, this common line about Tanzanians’ slackness while performing duties is not true. ”

Challenges

Diana says she faced cash woes in her bid to make the company stands on its own feet.

“I was forced to use my only old and outdated laptop which I was depending on while pursuing my undergraduate studies due to financial constraints,” she notes adding…

“A part from that was pregnant. Being a mother to be while struggling to make the new company gain reputation was not easy,” she explains.

Diana says it was also hard to get a reliable website through which she could easily market her business, adding that had it not been assistance she got from her friends things could have gotten out of hand.

She hints that the government cost-cutting measures are to blame for her dwindling business.

“Now we face economics challenge. In the past government officials were reliable customers. It is a pity that there are a few airline connections these days,” says Diana.

Women mentorship

Diana says she had a notion that women had opportunities to perform the best notwithstanding some traditional stumbling blocks ahead.

She says mothers spend all their money paying fees for their children who they believe would assist to develop their family enterprises.

She believes that women have all the formula to succeed in life but in case they don’t pull other women, they fail. She says through Stuka, she motivates and provides entrepreneurship education to women.

“I also used to organize seminars lead by motivation speakers like Mr Erick Shigongo , Mr Emmanuale Masanja and Mr chriss Mauki. Through this, every women feels valued and encouraged to work hard,” says Daina adding that they plan to move across the country to ensure a good number of women engage in entrepreneurship programmes.

Her vision

Diana says she want her dream of becoming an exemplary woman come true. She established Wives Cooking Club together with Miriam Mauki, a famous motivational speaker.

“Aim of wives cooking club is to ensure women return to their love for cooking at home, a woman should at least cook two or three times per week at home,” she says.

She says we need to do this for our families when we still have strength.

She calls on all women to work hard focusing on positive things and raising their families well.

Juliana who was among winners of the Malkia wa Nguvu Competition this year on Business Innovation category says she actually did not apply for the award but her services were recognized by members of the society. Something which made a local media company to pay more attention to what she does.

Being one of the Malkia wa Nguvu winners motivated her to find more opportunities to develop her ventures.

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