“I do not think I would have ever had the courage to work without everyone at the Centre motivating me to do it.” Maria is the mother of four children. Her husband suffered a stroke one year ago and is unable to have a job. By the time of the accident, he was the main earner of the family. Maria has not worked a single day in her life, their family attitude being very traditional: The man works, the woman raises the children.
As of 2017, Maria began to attend the literacy courses in one of our centres, along with other girls and women, and, in parallel, she wanted to also participate in the household course. She could teach the younger women lots of traditional food recipes, having a reputation for making the best lettuce soup. But, in turn, she learnt a lot from the girls in the literacy group that had not abandoned school for long and still had fresh information; she is a quick learner.
Based on the mutual support by the group, Maria got more confident in her abilities and intelligence. She serves as a role model to other women who have not had the courage to enter this program. But after three years, they got used to the idea that no one has anything to lose but to gain from these activities.
Currently, Maria, encouraged by other women in the groups, found a job. She is working at a recycling company and is very proud of what she does, saying that „I would not have thought it was so nice to work alongside others. I think I was so used to being alone in my house, that all these meetings during cooking and literacy activities made me learn to work and talk to people and women like me. The owner of the company congratulated me because I know how to write the attendance register, and I write and help other colleagues who cannot read and write. I talk with them, while sorting the plastic sheets, and they ask me where and how I had time to learn how to write. When I told them about the Centre, at first they laughed at me, but then, during the lunch break, they told me that they would also like to join the courses.”
Because of work, she cannot got to the the Centre regularly, but tries to visit it as much as often.
*Name changed due to privacy reasons