RAZAFINDRABODO Nirina Augustine – Madagascar

“Women tend to accept violence as a common fact”

Her name is Nirina and she works as a hairdresser in a small village of Moramanga. The council of Moramanga has been part of the centre of excellence of Gender Links (GL) since 2012.

Life has never been easy for Nirina, either as a child, an adult or as a mother. She is a courageous woman who is raising two children alone and is proud of herself because despite the sadness of her past, she has been able to excel and have her own business.

Nirina participated in training on entrepreneurship which was conducted by Gender Links (GL) in 2013. At first, she was not sure about how to implement her business plan. After attending the various training courses, she was able to leverage her gains and set up her own beauty centre. Nirina says that GL encouraged her to find solutions for each problem.

Nirina previously worked for a beauty centre in the town. The salary she received was very small and she could not even support the daily needs of her children. It was during this period that GL came to her council. She felt blessed to be one of the participants of this programme. “It was a great opportunity for me because training is never free in my council. So, I felt lucky to have been chosen by GL”, she acknowledges.

“Gender Links has changed my vision,” Nirina maintains. Before this, she did not know where to start. The personal development plan and the business plan developed during the training helped her to have goals and to define the means to achieve them.

Currently, Nirina’s life has changed completely. She has become a very active woman and source of information for women in her village. During village meetings she does not hesitate to express her opinions unlike before. “Women must participate at all levels, make their voices heard,” she points. According to Nirina, the problem of women in her village is that they tend to accept violence as a common fact. With the little she has, she tries to convince women to say no to violence and to encourage them to act to be financially independent.

Next year, she plans to establish a training centre for women survivors of violence, in partnership with the municipality and the listening and counselling centre of Moramanga.