By Celia FERNANDEZ | Program coordinator
As the International Women’s Day is approaching, it is the perfect time to share with you the story of one of our brand new businesswomen in Imzouren.
When Fatima divorced Mira’s father, she had no diploma and no professional experience at all.
Fatima entered the Family Strenghtening Program and decided that she had to be strong, for herself and for her daughter.
She was offered different professional training choices and decided that she wanted to have skills in different sectors in order to grasp all possible opportunities. That is how she first got her diploma in hairstyling and then a second diploma in cooking last year.
It is definitely a women’s story here: Fatima and her sister applied for a microcredit to another local association so that they could rent a shop and settle a hairstyle salon. That is when Fatima got the brilliant idea to propose full services as a wedding planner: hairstyling and cooking. This is a unique offer in Imzouren rural area. She is very determined into this new business just like an independent working woman who manages to organize wedding ceremonies on her own! Plus, Fatima has got her driving license this year! So that she can extend her network and become more and more autonomous.
Thanks to all this hard work, Fatima is now able to pay a private school for her daughter: Mira is an excellent student in 6th year of primary school. The brilliant girl is very proud of her mother who has got far away from her initial situation.
They are living together with Mira’s grand-mother and her aunt in a little unfinished house. The family doesn’t have enough savings yet to finish and repair the house, but the shelter is stable and securing, which is the most important in this seismic region.
The program keeps on supporting Fatima with school supplies, health expenses, and after-school classes for Mira, while step by step, Fatima and her sister are improving the living conditions for the whole family. We are confident that the family will reach autonomy and exit our program in 2017. That is our main objective, and yours too I am sure!
I take this opportunity to thank you for your support : if Fatima and Mira will soon no longer need our help, many other mother-headed families are still needed support to gain confidence and move forward. Thanks to you, we can keep on giving these single mothers the means to take care of their children and raise them in dignity !
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