HANITRA NASOLO Harilala Yacenthe – Madagascar

Collaboration and close partnership to promote women’s empowerment

Hanitra is a young dynamic woman who works every day between the capital city of Antananarivo and her council, Tsiafahy, 15 kilometres away. Hanitra is single and is not very talkative. She was motivated by the mayor of her council to join the entrepreneurship training offered by Gender Links (GL) in 2013. Hanitra was happy and saw in the training an opportunity to change her life.

Two years after completing the different training courses the changes are beginning to be noted. Her neighbourhood is intrigued by Hanitra’s change: taking responsibility, making decisions and showing the initiative to develop experience in what she does.

She was present at each stage of the training offered by GL and understands that all information and advice is beneficial to her to change and modernise her way of thinking and way of life. Before this training, Hanitra lived from agriculture and selling strawberries on the streets in a small shop in the village. “The training on entrepreneurship helped me to have innovative ideas”, she says.

After the second stage of the training, she made a lot of effort to develop her business and to seek new opportunities. She dared invest money and do things differently from other strawberry planters; she began to sell in the local market, no longer on the streets. To find new customers, Hanitra dared to go door to door within renowned institutions, after the advice and lessons obtained in the training and search for new outlets.

Her effort was rewarded and she was proud and happy when a large facility located in the capital agreed to take her products. Currently, she provides an important supermarket of the capital which enabled her to develop her business, sales, and benefits.

Her standard of living has changed. “I am now able to meet my family’s needs properly”, she says proudly. Her three children are all schooled, unlike before when she had great financial difficulty in sending them to school. The change in her life is also reflected in the way she interacts with her entourage, her clients and friends. She became more talkative and she gives ideas and advice to her friends when needed; she became a source of information for the neighbourhood and her surroundings. Hanitra does not intend to stop there. The success of her children is her first goal and she always wants to make an effort to improve her family life.

Hanitra thanks the council for its initiative to provide support to women survivors. “Without the help of the council, I would not be where I am today”, she insists. She also addresses her utmost gratitude to GL who gave her knowledge and so much experience throughout the training.

Finally, Hanitra suggests a formal partnership, like twinning of Centres of Excellence chosen by GL or other countries in Southern Africa, a joint economic action, collaboration and a close partnership.