People of the city: Iroda Matkarimova

The iron lady of Tashkent told about the biggest animal shelter and how to start a business from the purchase of electrodes.

My maiden family consisted of 10 people – parents and eight children. I have three brothers, all of them went to sambo and I was sent to judo. At the same time, I went to the music school, piano class.

I was always a hooligan, always was in the spotlight.

After school, I decided not to go to the university but got married and in 1996 my daughter was born. In my nature I am not a home-sitting person and being at home I started my business.

I've always been drawn to iron (laughs). I decided to start with mediation. I bought newspapers and was writing out advertisements for the sale and purchase of electrodes all night. Slowly I began to delve into this area, there were more deals, and I decided to expand (laughs): I added fittings to my "assortment" and so I got to the pipes. Soon I got a job, I was hired as a commercial director. After a major deal, I thought that do not want to work for someone and decided to open my own company.

I opened my own metal company "StelCom LLC", recruited a staff of 12 people, hired an accountant, and so began my activity.

When my daughter was 3 years old, I sent her to kindergarten. Already at that time, I could afford to hire a nanny and a driver (until the age of 18, my daughter was under the supervision of a nanny). Then I sent her to the Yulduzcha group, from the second grade she began to study English. When she got older, she went to classes in a 2D studio with Sergey Zlotnikov.

I have always dreamed of my own business, to be a cool person (laughs). All thoughts are material, so you constantly need to dream and go to your goals. Now our President gives all the opportunities for entrepreneurs, it has become much easier to work. Our country is rapidly developing and rising before our eyes.

I want to convey to all women in Uzbekistan that work is not a terrible job, there will be enough work for everyone, do not be afraid of competition.

According to my horoscope, I am a lion and a tiger, perhaps that is why I am a very independent and freedom-loving person. I do not like when I am commanded, in my turn, I always communicate with my employees on an equal footing, I never command and never refuse to help.

I love animals very much, and this contributed to the opening of an animal shelter. Before, I was just a volunteer, but soon I realized my full responsibility and decided to continue, expand this business.

For 4 years I was running with all the paperwork. Today we have all the documents on hand, and we are trying to build a shelter on our own. Someone gives us cement, some companies provide corrugated board; in general, collect from the world on a thread. We hope that soon we will build a nice warm shelter. This is a huge project for our country!

This shelter will be the first large animal home among the CIS countries. We have a huge plan for 3 hectares, of which 1.5 hectares are used for the building. We are also planning to equip a veterinary clinic in the shelter. Now we are negotiating with foreign partners, they are ready to donate equipment for operations and instruments for analysis.

We now have about 400 dogs, and we have one enclosure with cats. Every day we add dogs to families. We have opened a voluntary account for Hayot Shelter, I hope that with these donations we will be able to feed and heal the animals.

Animals are faithful, they are not like people. In my life, I have seen a lot of betrayal from close people, so I decided that it would be better to help animals. We have a group of entrepreneurs, where everyone helps people, children, pensioners, and a few take care of animals. I decided to concentrate on the smaller brothers.

Iron gives me energy. I get up at 4 am every day. At 5 I go outside and feed my cats. At 6 am I have breakfast. At 7 I come to work. My team of workers also comes early, as they always have different tasks. Of course, this is a purely male job, but I like it. I love my job.

When I don't want to get up in the morning, I remember that at 5 in the morning, 27 cats gather under my window. If I don't go out to feed them, they will start meowing, and all the neighbors will chase me out of the house (laughs). Of course, in the evening I'm like a squeezed lemon. At 11 I already fall asleep.

My daughter is 23 years old, she cleans the house and cooks. My child received a decent upbringing and I think that she will be like me, like our grandmother.

My mother is 80 years old, but she still keeps us all.

My friends and I have a tradition - when it rains, everyone comes to me to drink tea with cherry jam. We used to gather at home more often and cook. But now no one has free time, so now we see each other less.

I would like to address people: “Dear Uzbek people and guests of the capital, come to our shelter. It is not necessary to bring something or donate money. Just come to play with the dogs. They all need attention and care. I have a Facebook group, for sure you need to join it. Every Saturday we organize free transport to the shelter, we post all the announcements in the group. If you want to help financially, then take a bag of any cereals with you, this will already save us money that we can use to insulate the aviaries"

I always have a notebook, phone, pen and perfume in my bag. I love perfume. I don’t go without it.

My motto is: forward, the trumpet calls.

Original Text in Russian prepared by Kristina Kim, photo by Evgeniy Sorochin Tashkent, 18.10.2018

Source: https://www.afisha.uz/gorod/2018/10/18/iroda-matkarimova/