I now pay my children’s school fees

In her own words – Hassana, Nigeria

“My name is Hassana Rahama Abdullahi and I am 37 years old. I am married with four children, two boys and two girls. I live in Jengre community of Plateau State, Nigeria.

Joining the Women for Women International programme has made me see myself differently, thanks to changes which I never thought were possible. I hope to raise my children especially my daughters to go school since I did not have the opportunity to attend one myself.

Before now, paying my children’s school fees was impossible for me as I had to wait for my husband. If he refused, I had to go to the children’s schools to plead with their teachers to give me more time to raise the money. Most times, my children ended up being sent home from school because I could not afford to pay their fees. Now I am able to pay their fees without having to worry about where to get the money from by using my monthly training stipends to expand my groundnuts business.

Earning an income as a woman brings about big changes. Aside from being able to pay my children’s school fees, we are now able to eat better. I ensure that we eat more nourishing foods now than before. Presently, I plan to increase my business to include the sale of vegetables in addition to the sale of fresh groundnuts.

My role as a parent is now more effective as I am able to raise them better. Before now, my sons rarely carried out any household chores, but after learning that all humans are equal and one of the ways to show this is to share household chores among children equally irrespective of their gender, I now share the household chores among my sons and this has afforded me the opportunity to have more time for myself and my family and to my surprise and delight, they enjoy doing the chores assigned to them.

Our WfWI trainer, Pauline, always emphasized that if we work hard as women, our families and communities will benefit from the trainings we are receiving. Investing in the training of more women in my community is very important because this will enable them to make changes that will affect their families as well as their communities.”