Madagascar: Ravoarimanana Marie Augustine

My name is Ravoarimanana Marie Augustine and I live in the town of Antananarivo. I married Rakotoniaina Modeste. We really loved each other until we had two children and his bad character began to show. He drank, was foul-mouthed when I asked about the money he won’t and he’d leave home the next morning not to return. My two children and I starved to death, so we went to my mom’s. But he got angry when he heard about it.

Since it’s hard to find a job in summer, he behaved correctly and stayed home. And that’s how I got pregnant again, but when winter came, he tried to pick up a fight with me so that we split up and he could get back to his bad habits. What’s more, even my parents couldn’t reason with him. Later, Modeste became a heavy drinker and violence grew at home; including sexual abuse when I sometimes refused it.

I collected crumbs at Analakely when I met Mrs. Lalao, a tomatoe seller. She let me sell leafy greens in a place next to hers in the market. As usual, my husband made my life impossible when I took that job so I finally stopped selling, and we had another child. To my surprise, I discovered that Mrs. Lalao was actually nobody else but my husband’s mistress. I looked for another place in the market and kept on selling but I stopped giving him money even though he beat me, today I still bear the imprinted scars on me. Later on, I left him and not long after that, he died.

Time was pasted by and as I now have a good relationship with the people at the Council, Mrs. Monique and Mrs. Julie suggested me to follow the training organized by Gender Links. I scrupulously followed the different steps of the training and the teachings I received. And things like gender, business management, and business plan have been very useful and they changed my life. That is how I managed to extend my commercial activity. I think everything in the training was important as it aimed at improving our life conditions. Besides, we barely met any problem during the training as the facilitators were marvelous.

Before the training, I sold just leafy greens but after that, I extended my business with selling vegetables also. I admit that this training was really of a great help to me, I did it and got good tools. Now, I sell many different goods, I have experienced an important personal development, and became a more open-minded and courageous person who is determined to fight for my life. I have to say that the Council really helped me through its counseling and information, the Gender Links as well.