Madagascar: Heliarivelo Mampianina

I have enjoyed this training because I was shy, now I have become quite self-confident and talkative, enjoying going to cyber-café; I have never used a computer, but now I have an e-mail address, I can write and communicate with SMS.

The training we attended started in June 2014; we had to write our story narrating our life before the training, we suffered from many types of violence and could not fight back, and our life. We all followed the training, from Phase 1, to Phase 2, through to Phase 3 and now, we are writing our stories; and I am ready for whatever is to follow. I really like the topics of financing and business, because they have made me think about been independent.

We all had a BOA bank account opened with the Mayor of Manjakandriana because she helps us as well as the facilitators. The minor problem I had in January 2015, during the rainy season with a particularly heavy rainfall, I always got wet on my way home, and nearly got buried in a landslide.

With the yogurt I make I am able to make profit at least, I can pay for my children’s monthly school fees and the meals for the day: if I make 3000Ar every day, 2500Ar goes to food and 500Ar is saved. The training has helped towards a better life and even saved my life.

My former life was quite miserable since my ex-husband had no job but was a womanizer. For example, if I was making fritters, he would kick the oil in the frying pan and I would get burnt. He has now changed because I am earning money now and do no ask money from him anymore: he is now the one who begs money from me.

My family is not affected by this, they are even happier, because the violence I suffered from is often restricted. There is a link between violence and having money of your own: very often the problem of the household is a question of money and if I ask my husband to give me money, he may grumble, which may start quarrels that lead to violence. But if I have money of my own I can use it as I like.

I work with the community and know how to cooperate, sharing what I have learnt from the training, and in fact, there are neighbors who come to ask what was done at the training sessions, and I will tell them because they are women like me and I know they have the same problems as mine, so we end up working together. I enjoy enjoyed the information, I compared with other training’s I have attended because of these Gender Links training where I learnt about how to fight against violence, for instance, how to budget, how to manage income and expenses. In the future, I’m planning to be a self-employed business-woman. In conclusion, I would like to encourage women like me to improve their life and not accept to be put down by others: one needs a goals in life.