HANITRA NASOLO HARILALA YACENTHE

Before the beginning of the training, the mayor of the district of Tsiafahy had encouraged us to join the association for equality so I really was enthusiastic and wanted to participate in the program the first time I heard about it in order to change my life. Now, I think that this training was really successful. In my opinion, my life has completely changed, and I was really satisfied with this training on equality so I need to make efforts and do my best because I have been taught to manage my life and I won’t overlook that. I’ve also learnt to behave well, be independent and take my own life decisions. Most importantly, I’ve discovered many things during the training; for example, I went to many nice restaurants, I interacted with many people and I could share my problems.

I’ve been participating in the training for about two years now, there were many steps I needed to go through and I’ve done all of them and haven’t missed a single day.

The topics that I found most useful during the training were those on how I could improve my life because I learnt about computers and the different ways of improving my life. I had a computer problem during the training because I had never used one before. Before the training, I had grown strawberries as a living. Before, I had sold the products in marketplaces but since I participated in the training and learnt how to develop my activity and find new market opportunities, I’ve sent my goods to large stores.

I could feel that I have changed when I started participating in the training because I have learnt, among other things, the good way of behaving, and especially about independence, that is to say that I should not depend on men. As I’ve already mentioned, the mayor of the district of Tsiafahy was among the people who helped me; there were also his collaborators who helped me further so I thank them. My parents also keep helping and advising me every day, and they pray for everything I do. I entered married life at 16 and during my marriage, I really suffered from violence, as my husband had his own house and he only thought of taking advantage of me. He also cheated on me and left me and my three children.

My parents are overjoyed seeing the change in my household because they never see me discouraged.

As far as community’s opinion is concerned, some say that people like me can be considered as a role model and deserve to be helped. Seeing the positive impacts of this training, I can’t forget to give back to community, so I teach people and I explain to them the particulars of the training in which I participate for them to be equal to others so that there won’t be superior and inferior people anymore. Currently, my advantage over others is my ability to live better than when I wasn’t still participating in this training. Now, I know how to manage and improve my life, thus setting myself apart from others, because I am already experienced and people can’t deceive me. Through this training, I have also learnt to interact with many people, to use computers, and to teach others about home management, work and about how they should be self-confident. As far as my projects are concerned, I wish to help increase women’s ability to enter the workforce and to help them be independent so that they can fully participate in society.

Fifteen years from now, I hope and am positive that my life will be better thanks to the pieces of advice I got from the training.