Lydia Boi is passionate about helping people, which fits well for someone who is a nurse and midwife. She will never forget a Scottish nurse she used to work with who had type O blood and would donate her own blood before carrying out surgery to save women who had complications during labor.
This act inspired Lydia to help people in whatever way she could. She is still doing just that. In addition to running her own NGO that provides healthcare to rural villages, Lydia is continuing her husband’s fire safety business after he passed away last year.
Safeguard and Averting Fire Firm is a small business that sells fire safety equipment, such as fire extinguishers and fire alarms. The bulk of Lydia’s 15 employees are in sales and visit businesses throughout Monrovia to pitch the company’s services. CICO was one such firm, and with the help of Building Markets, Safeguard was able to seal the deal.
CICO is a Chinese construction company that primarily builds roads. When Safeguard visited CICO they saw that the company needed their fire extinguishers refilled, but the company wasn’t convinced to work with Safeguard since they didn’t know the business. Before leaving, Lydia told CICO that Safeguard is on the Building Markets Supplier Directory.
One day later, CICO called Safeguard and told Lydia they had looked at their profile on the Supplier Directory and were impressed. Safeguard refilled five extinguishers in their main office. Satisfied, CICO called Safeguard to do an additional 17 in their county offices. Though the contract amounts are small, building lasting business relationships is what is important.
“Through Building Markets they gained trust in our company,” Lydia explained.
Selling fire extinguishers may not seem like the obvious route for someone with a nursing and midwifery degree, but fire safety is not taught much in schools, businesses or even by parents to their children like it is in the United States and other developed countries. After working for hospitals in Tubmanbourg, Bensonville and Monrovia, Lydia became chief medic at the national Fire Service where she worked for nine years.
“This business in important because it…save[s] lives,” Lydia said. “People don’t know what to do when there is a fire. They forget to call the fire service and when someone finally does it’s too late.”
Moreover, Lydia wanted to her husband’s hard work to live on after he passed away. She is able to succeed in this due to her passion and commitment, along with a little help from Building Markets.
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