“I would have loved to go to school, become a teacher or work in public administration like everyone else. But my parents decided otherwise. My father said that a girl should not go to school.

I learned to sew on my own four years ago because when my father died I had to scramble to find the money to live on. I didn’t want to go ask a boy for it because I didn’t feel ready yet.

Here in the center there are machines so sometimes I am asked for services to sew for people and I come here to do it. When I make money I try to save some of it.

One day I want to set up on my own so that I can help my mother and my younger brothers because I am the oldest in the family. “

By Vincent Tremeau