SYLVIA BANDA: We were seven girls in the family and one boy, and this boy was the last born.
The fellow villagers kept on laughing at my father. I started asking myself, is it a crime
to be born a girl? So it was from that time I declared anything
that a man can do, I can also do it.
(Music)
NORBERG: Sylvia and Hector Banda’s new business would focus on the distribution of
locally grown Zambian foods.
But getting produce from farmers in the remote countryside proved a challenge, as was creating
a process to maintain modern standards for food quality.
DAE SUNG KIM (Speaking foreign): When I escaped from North Korea, I was 27. I crossed the
Changbai Shan River into China. There were too many North Korean security guards patrolling there.
So I walked the mountain trails at night with no food for a week. I went hiding during the
day, and walked the trails at night again.
The North Korean defectors have no relatives in the South. They are mostly single, and
have no property.
So borrowing money is the hardest thing for them, and also the most important thing.
(Foreign speaking)
NORBERG: Dae Sung meets regularly with the various owners to discuss business issues,
cultural differences, and basic moral support. North Korean refugees have many challenges.
They often change their names, in order to avoid arrest and reprisals to their relatives
who are still living in the North. Then, they find they are not so easily integrated into the south.
Ok-Bun and her family escaped from North Korea 2 years ago.
OK-BUN (Speaking foreign): I escaped with my husband, myself, and two sons.
Mr. Kim helped us with loans. That was how we got started.
DAE SUNG KIM: I expect that someday North Korea will open her doors. When it does happen,
the former North Korean defectors will be experienced business people backed with funds;
then we’ll be able to play our roles in the reconstruction of North Korea
NORBERG: Katarina Rybarikova had an idea… she would bring the growing Paul Frank brand,
with its distinctive monkey logo, from America to Eastern Europe.
KATARINA RYBÁRIKOVÁ: Now we are the only official Paul Frank store in Europe.
It was really so easy.
NORBERG: Katarina has hired her brother, Erik, to manage product research in her growing
business. Their mother, Olga, is the bookkeeper.
OĽGA RYBÁRIKOVÁ (Speaking foreign): Katarina is a fascinating person, and I’m not saying
that just because she’s my daughter. I’m very proud of her and Erik, of what they have
achieved, and I’m happy to be a part of such a company.
KATARINA RYBÁRIKOVÁ: I am happy that I live now, and I didn’t live before.
NORBERG: John Hernandez grew up in a small Chilean village. He went to work on a beekeeping
farm to learn the trade and after 5 years, he, his 2 brothers and sister pooled their
money to invest in their own beekeeping business.
HERNANDEZ (Speaking foreign): The bee health situation was very bad. So we got serious
about our professionalism. We were no longer peasant beekeepers that we were at the beginning.
We had to turn our company around and incorporate technology, and to do that, we had to hire
experts and bring them from abroad so we could be taught how to save our bees.
We trained ourselves and educated our workers.
NORBERG: But maintaining the health of his bees was not going to grow the business.
John needed a new source of income. His research led him to a large French bee producer in
desperate need of new hives. John’s company began exporting queen bees, and even full
hives, to France. Since Chile has one of the most open trade policies in South America,
implementing this new source of income was not difficult.
John and his family had made a new life for themselves and for others in their community.
For his parents, such success would have been unthinkable.
VERONICA CEREZOS (Speaking foreign): My name is Veronica Cerezos and my micro-factory is
FIBRA DISEÑO Y HOGAR. We manufacture loom, weaved and felt objects. We make rugs, throws,
and cushions. And we are planning on making curtains and sheets in the future, all home decor.
So far, we have made twenty-thousand pesos we have saved. With that money, we will buy
some wool to make a rug that was ordered.
NORBERG: Today Veronica and her partners are moving into their new workshop.
CEREZOS: We want to prove that even though we live in an encampment, we can do it.
We want to have more income, and at the same time make our business grow, so we can employ
our own people, all of those that live here at the encampment. That is why we decided
to do our workshop right here where we live.
(Speaking foreign)
NORBERG: New-found economic freedom is changing lives.
(Music)