Chantal on her trade route with a heavy bowl of bananas on her head
Béatrice Nyirabemera (WWO Ambassadress)
At the age of 32, Chantal works as a banana seller in the streets of Rwanda. Béatrice met her in 2022, the day she bought bananas from her. When Béatrice approached Chantal, she was impressed by the huge tray of bananas she was carrying on her head, and the difficulty she was having putting it on the ground. Seeing how difficult it was for her to run her business, Béatrice decided to ask her about her life.
Chantal explained that she had no choice but to go into business to survive. She never went to school because of her mother. Instead of sending her to school, as her aunt always recommended, her mother always assigned her to domestic work. Fed up with her mother's mistreatment, she decided to leave the family home at the age of 15 to work as a domestic. After five years of work, she lost her job when her employer died. As she could not return to her mother's house, she accepted a request for concubinage from a man who hid from her that he was married. After a year of marriage, her husband threw her out and abandoned her with a child. It was then that she found herself on the streets. After a year of wandering, In an effort to protect herself from need, she began a new relationship with another man. She soon became pregnant again and had a second child. Without really understanding why, this other man abandoned her too. After he left, she had no choice but to become a banana seller to support her two children.
Chantal during her sewing class
Feeling compassion for Chantal, Béatrice decided to offer her vocational training. She asked a seamstress she knew to train her free of charge, and a benefactor gave her a sewing machine. Since then, Chantal has been learning to sew during the day and selling bananas in the evening. Thanks to Béatrice, a WWO ambassadress, Chantal has been given a new lease of life, even if she is still struggling to pay the rent. Except that her children still don't go to school. They wander the streets while she works. She fears they will become delinquents if she fails to enrol them in school, but she will work hard to prevent this.
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