About to jump off a terrace in 2017, this entrepreneur claimed her life back
Deputy Editor, UAE
As a vlogger and entrepreneur who runs a marketing agency, Dubaibased Camilla Iman knows what it takes to get your attention.
“I love cars and big bikes. I had an auto care shop and was also into drag racing in the Philippines at one time,” says the 41-year-old Filipina.
Listen to the rest of her story and you realise the sense of adventure, coupled with resilience, is what has seen her through a rash of challenges that have included not just job loss, homelessness and heavy debt, but also the pits of depression, despair, even an alleged attempt to commit suicide.
Iman, who first came to Dubai in 2014, says she has weathered many storms, but no matter how bad things got, leaving the city was never an option.
Her trials began the day she arrived, with the workplace she was supposed to join being nothing of what it was made out to be. “I was to promote a certain business and train its staff, but my prospective employer wanted me to be a driver,” she claims. “I refused and my life became miserable.”
Left to fend for herself in a new country, she says she tried doing some odd jobs to survive. “I got a job in a luxury car workshop. I was grateful and enjoyed my work as it helped me grow professionally.” But a year down the line, she resigned from the job due to personal reasons.
“From that moment on, it was a constant struggle.” Although she entered into partnerships for a couple of ■ businesses, none worked out. At one point, she was rendered homeless and penniless. “I had borrowed over Dh200,000 but had no means to return it.”
But a friend put her up at her place for some time and lent her money to move to another place in due course. “I still didn’t have a job and my confidence was low,” she recalls.
What followed was an attack of depression. Iman says, “Everything I had tried had failed. I came to a point where I wanted to end my life.”
She says she wore her “favourite dress”, put on her “favourite make-up” and made her way to the terrace of a building on April 30, 2017. “I was ready to jump. So many thoughts were running in my mind when suddenly the prospect of an undignified, brutal death hit me. And what if I wouldn’t die and go into a coma? It was the turning point for me and that’s when I chose to live, fight, pursue my dreams and win.”
With a renewed vigour, she says she walked back into her life. Iman says she was able to recover fully with professional psychiatric help. She says in August last year, a kind Emirati man supported her to start a business. “It’s been a dream come true and my life has completely changed. I have repaid most of my debt and have made some very treasured friends who have placed unwavering faith in me.”
Ask her what the biggest lesson she has learnt is and she promptly replies, “Never give up. There’s a silver lining in every cloud. Just be honest and things will fall into place.”