Marie Augustine Ravaoarimanana – Madagascar

Marie Augustine Ravaoarimanana – Madagascar


Date: November 23, 2015
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Generosity is my leitmotiv

Marie Augustine Ravaoarimanana is one of the survivors who followed the different stages of the entrepreneurship training offered by Gender Links (GL) in the urban council of Antananarivo.

She was left alone to raise and care for her seven children. To date, two of them are still living with her, they are unemployed despite the fact that they trained as mechanics.

Mary Augustine has long suffered violence from her former husband, who did not hesitate to abuse her, to beat her, to insult, to deceive and to prohibit her from working at that time. Due to the different forms of violence she experienced, she has been affected by physical and psychological trauma.

When she found herself alone with her children, she began working by selling vegetables in the market which provided her just enough money for her family to survive. Marie Augustine also hosts orphan children form her neighborhood and from time to time she hosts homeless people as well. Her generosity led her to work with the town to raise awareness concerning orphans. Known by the council service providers, it was proposed that she follow the training offered by GL on entrepreneurship.

Marie Augustine was immediately interested by the training and was present during all stages. Each lesson has benefited her and she has put all of them into practice. She has learnt how to regain self-confidence as well as respect for herself, financial independence, business development strategy, bookkeeping and management of resources and expenses.

To expand her business, she began to regularly write a comparative table of resources and expenditure, which allowed her to better manage her expenses. She developed her business by adding other vegetables. Now, Marie Augustine has more responsibility and a lot more work, however she can count on her children to help since she cannot work long continuous hours due to the consequences of the trauma she suffered from her former husband’s violence.

Marie Augustine’s children are proud of her. They are also happy with their new life which has changed thanks to their mother. Marie Augustine can now dress her children properly and promise them a better future. Her neighbours are especially intrigued with the method followed by Marie Augustine. However, the latter does not hesitate to share her experience and counsel them when they need it. Her brother was the only person who did not appreciate her success as a single woman without a husband with children. Faced with all these changes, Marie Augustine took confidence and is full of ambition.

She has put in place a method to manage her resources and expenses. The profits obtained from the sale of leafy vegetables are used for the daily needs of the family and Marie Augustine reinvested the profits from the sale of other vegetables in the purchase and resale of bricks.

Eventually, Marie Augustine hopes that the brick business becomes her main activity. This activity requires more capital, yet it generates more benefits which would allow her to realise her dream. This is to construct buildings to accommodate schools to educate children from disadvantaged families. Mary Augustine is also working towards the establishment of a training programme intended to train young people on the prevention of violence.

Mary Augustine is full of ideas, she is involved in the social life of her surroundings and made a lot of effort to move her family out of poverty, she is a real driver of change of the urban council of Antananarivo.

 


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