All hope for tulips

Tulips for Marina Ibrayeva became a symbol of hope. With the help of these flowers, a woman collects funds to pay for her kidney transplant operation.

 Two years ago, a resident of Ekibastuz city Marina Ibraeva decided to organize their own business. A woman suffers from a serious illness, due to which her two kidneys refused. To live a full life, a mother of two children requires an organ transplantation, which costs a lot of money. This prompted the Marina to come up with a new way of making money. She decided to grow tulips. About what successes she has achieved in her business over the past two years, Marina told to the correspondent of El.kz portal.

 In 2015, Marina, being an invalid of the first group, developed her own project for growing and selling tulips. In total, the businesswoman planned to grow five thousand flowers. The money she was going to spend on an expensive kidney transplant operation.  
The local business department approved this project. She was one of the best among those 120 projects that other start-up entrepreneurs of Ekibastuz city offered. Probably her project was liked by them because Marina already knew something about running a business at that time, as dealt with this. She was selling dishes.  

 For the project businesswoman isolated state grant in the amount of three million tenge. The money is foreseen for the purchase of bulbs, the necessary equipment for the storage and cultivation of flowers. Then Marina still lived in a two-room apartment with total area of 43 square meters, together with her family. And since there was no time to wait, she decided to arrange a greenhouse right at home. In one of the rooms, the businesswoman equipped a so-called greenhouse and created all the necessary conditions for flowers, keeping the temperature not higher than 18 degrees, so that the tulips are not wilted from heat.  

 Businesswoman selling flowers gathered in Ekibastuz city, and in nearby cities. Having rich experience in growing indoor plants, she carefully studied the literature on tulips, bought bulbs and soil. But since it was in November, the necessary number of bulbs Marina could not found. She bought up everything in the local stores. She was able to buy a thousand bulbs, 80 percent of which in Marina’s opinion of the most sought-after red, the other yellow and white. These were bulbs of not better quality. Having a good amount of knowledge and great efforts, the woman planted bulbs February 23 and was able to achieve amicable shoots. And by March, in the apartment of Marina, dozens of harbingers of spring turned green.  

 But buds on them, unfortunately, did not appear. Already two years later, the entrepreneur admitted that she hurried to buy bulbs, as she urgently needed to report on the project. There simply was not the time to wait, when fresh good bulbs will be on sale.   But even this did not make Marina surrender. After a while, she bought a batch of good bulbs and, already strictly following the technology, prepared them for planting. And all this despite the fact that since 2009 she receives hemodialysis, a day visiting the four-hour procedure for the purification of blood.

 Not so long ago Marina Ibraeva moved into a private house. In the courtyard, she decided to build a greenhouse for her tulips for 100 square meters, as she had dreamed.  

 "Greenhouses for tulips differ from ordinary greenhouses in that they are built like blind rooms," said Marina. - These flowers do not need extra light, it is necessary to create conditions close to the basement. Based on this we build a greenhouse. In the future, even if this room does not come in handy for tulips, it will be very convenient as a building. There it will be possible to do something else. We are building a capital building. We wanted to make the overlap, but so far we have not succeeded. My health fails. Recently, I began to feel worse, and there are always a lot of things in a private house. Now we are looking for a donor, an announcement. If you can find a kidney, relatives will finish building a greenhouse without me. There it remained only to cover the roof.

 Since the greenhouse was not yet ready, the florist again organized the greenhouse right at home. In one of the rooms, she exposed windows to create a cold and maintained the necessary temperature, and planted a second batch of flowers.

- The first batch of tulips did not blossom because it was necessary to show the result, and money was given in November.Nobody sells bulbs in November. The tabulation of tulips goes in September and by November almost nothing remained in stores. That these bulbs should not lie in vain, I planted them. Green they gave good. But all the flowers were empty because they were improperly stored. But I resuscitated these bulbs, they then gave me tulips.  

 - What did you do with it for them?

 -They were all in sores, all sick. I soaked them in all sorts of fungicides, in manganese, treated them, then withstood the prescribed temperature. They should be stored for two months at 4 degrees. I cleaned them, and they lay with me this time in the cellar. And then they gave me flowers afterward. 
On January 7, at Christmas, I planted these tulips. A month later, on February 14, we already sold the first shipment on the street. We had five buckets of one hundred pieces. People sorted them out well. Orders were, we ourselves formed bouquets.The flowers were very beautiful - pink, yellow, white, red, and even black. We left some of the flowers until 8 March. So that they do not blossom, those flowers that have already picked buds, we kept at a temperature of 9 degrees. And so they stood to wait for my month. Then we closed the windows and that's it. They blossomed, and we sold them. It seems that everything is easy but in fact the subtleties in the cultivation of tulips a lot. When we still lived in the apartment, I grew them on the ground, which is not cheap. And this time I used ordinary building sand. On 200 tenge for a bag they bought and straight in the sand they were grown. In general, when you stuff your hand, you quickly achieve results.

 - Why did not you surrender them for sale in specialized stores?

 -Actually, I thought of handing them to flower stalls. But there they agreed to accept me for only 100 tenge per flower. And they are sold at 600 tenge per piece. I hoped that I would give at least 300 tenge. But it did not work out. I traveled all the florists who had promised to support me before and was going to buy tulips from me, but no one gave more than 100 tenge for the flower. And I decided to sell them myself for 300 tenge. By three o'clock in the afternoon on March 8, I no longer had a single flower left. It turns out that on February 14 and March 8 we sold all the tulips that were grown.

 - And what will you implement in the future? The next party will certainly be more.

- We want to make a small shop on the premises. To hand over 100 tenge is unprofitable at all.  

 - Marina, do you continue to cooperate with the Department of Entrepreneurship and the “Damu Foundation”?

 - Under the project, I reported to the “Damu Foundation” for a grant. My project is already closed there. When the commission arrived, everything was already blooming. Now I continue to work independently. But our business department and “Damu Foundation” very well supported me at the very beginning of my journey. They, one might say, helped me to get back on my feet.

 - The money that you have been allocated from the fund "Damu", enough for the construction of a greenhouse?

 - Yes. I had enough for all this money. I bought refrigeration equipment and building materials for this money.  

 - How many do not fade your tulips?

 - My tulips are a month without problems.  

 - Why so long? What's the secret? Usually, tulips cost a week, or even less.

 - Natural product - picked up the son of Marina.  

 - In contrast to imported flowers, my grown in conditions as close to natural, Marina explains. "They do not stuff anything."My sister had a birthday, I gave her my tulips cut off, so she also was surprised that they stood for so long. The most important thing is cooling. They should wait a period in a warm place for two months and then spend two more months in the cold. And then we plant them.

 - Now you have land. Anything else you tried to grow?

 -I planted Dutch lilies for the summer. I wrote an order out from Holland on the Internet and I received bulbs. I grow them in the streets. Such huge lilies turned out. And the smell just funky. But they also took the flowerers from me for only 100 tenge. And bouquets of three thousand are sold. It's a shame.

  - Did not you try to grow roses?

 - Before the roses, it did not happen. I started with indoor plants. Just blossom immediately sold.

 - Will you continue to grow tulips?

 - Yes. I have more bulbs. It's a pity after all. They are in my cellar right now.  It will not be much, but I will try to put it up for sale a little.

 - Do you have any competitors in the city? Does anyone else grow tulips?

 - I know that tulips are grown in Kazakhstan in Karaganda and Almaty. In our city, I do not feel a special competition.  

 - Do you regret that it was the tulips that were engaged in?

 - Not at all. This is the most uncomfortable flower. If you work closely, you can harvest flowers four times a year. But while I do not have such an opportunity because of health. I've been on dialysis for eight years. This autumn is hard for me at all. The body is exhausted slowly.  

 - So you collected the necessary money for treatment?

 - Not yet. But time does not wait. A suitable donor yet. He must have a fourth blood group and a positive Rh factor. I stood in line in Astana. There now there is a center of withdrawal if I'm not mistaken at the center of blood transfusion. Before the center of withdrawal was not. Every six months we take tests.

 We in Ekibastuz city only 46 people who need a kidney transplant. But when my turn comes, it is not known. In addition, everything is very individual in this matter. Not every person can be approached by an organ that is. Here, the blood group, the Rh factor, and other characteristics are taken into account. And I can not wait anymore. Constantly jumps pressure, all organs suffer.

Have to drink a lot of drugs: for the heart, liver, stomach. Naturally, there are side effects. Therefore, I want to do the operation as soon as possible. Then it will be clear what to do with the tulips. After the operation, I can live like all healthy people.

Marina herself is a doctor by training. She worked as a nurse at Ekibastuz city Hydro Electric Station. And when she got laid off, working wherever she can, including on the construction site.  

 - Especially difficult was necessary for the 90s - says Marina Ibraeva.

 And now the Marina is not sitting idle and is constantly coming up with new ways of making money. Arriving at a private house she bought a hundred ducks. They held them just in the room where it was supposed to make a greenhouse. So the building is already useful, although so far and without a roof. Marina also sells the ducks. And all this in order to live a full life like all healthy people.  

 Their the entrepreneur passes knowledge to the business to her children. Her 28-year-old son is going to start making plastic windows, and my mother helps him with advice in this endeavor. Marina's daughters are only 18 years old. She studies at the University of International Economics and Trade. Relatives and relatives, in turn, help her in everything, including in the cultivation of tulips.

 - When I became an invalid, I realized that I do not need anyone - I was not taken to work anywhere. So I had to deal with what brings in income. It's good that we have such programs to support entrepreneurs. It happens that a person has good ideas for business, and there is no starting capital. I was lucky in this regard. I have everything legally: the Individual Business card is open, taxes are paid regularly.

 Businesswoman recognized that work on it like more than a business or organization. It would be healthy. And there are always ideas for organizing a family business for Marina. 
 

Translated by Akhan Tuleshov

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