25/05/2025
My house cleaner, Ada, is a graduate from UNIZIK who was forced to take up house cleaning as a survival job when corporate jobs were not forthcoming.
She arrived in Lagos 3 years ago, fresh from NYSC, in search of greener pastures, but jobs were not forthcoming.
She knocked at doors and submitted her CV in so many places. followed up with uncles who promised elusive jobs that don't exist, but nothing materialised, but she kept pushing as she kepy hope alive.
What happened next is a beautiful story of human spirit and the ability to change your life when you believe that you deserve better.
She had an epiphany one morning last year as she asked herself.
Would I continue living this?
How long will I continue to be broke, living from hand to mouth?
The next step she took changed her and her income forever.
She is living with her aunty in my estate; apparently, a couple of residents who are busy professionals need a cleaner who could come to clean the house in exchange for a fixed fee, and Ada saw an opportunity to earn a decent income and to build a niche around that.
She started with one client, and today, she boasts an impressive clientele of over 8 clients that she helps to clean and tidy their apartment.
She charges 30k per client, and so, monthly, she makes 210k guaranteed monthly income, more than what some Facebook vendors make in a month as profit, more than a contact staff with a Nigerian bank who dressed up in suit and tie to go to work every day make at the end of the month.
She makes more than 210k sometimes when she gets a one-off job to clean an apartment, but it does not come all the time.
I was at home on Wednesday when she came around to clean the house, and I asked her.
Do you miss corporate jobs?
She smiled and said, No, oooo, as she is not planning to return to job hunting anymore.
Doing this has changed her life, as she makes enough for herself and still sends money to her parents and her siblings back home in the east.
The only downside is the pain that comes with the job, she said with a worry on her face. Sometimes, I take an analgesic in the night before I could sleep at night because doing this job is not easy, but it can only get better than this.
What's next for her?
She is saving up to start a cleaning company so as to employ other young people to do the heavy lifting of cleaning clients' apartments to enable her to focus on getting jobs instead of spending all day cleaning her clients' apartments.
I was reminded by her story that we can actually change our lives and our circumstances.
If Ada did not bend down to look around, to see the beauty in what others could have considered a dirty job, she would not have seen the need to start a cleaning career which has changed her life for the better.
At least she is no longer broke; she sends money home, and she is happier because the future is bright.
Her story is a testament to the human spirit's capacity for resilience, adaptability, and empowerment.
With determination and hard work, Ada turned her struggles into opportunities, inspiring us to do the same.
What can we learn from her journey?
How can we apply her courage and resourcefulness to our own lives?
By embracing our challenges and seeking solutions, we can, like Ada, rise above our circumstances and create a brighter future.
Life can throw a lemon at us, but we have the power to turn it into lemonade, but this can happen when you bend down to see an opportunity in that dirt and then have the courage to start.
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