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Cameroon - Turning life around
(March 2010)

Desperate situation

43 year old Agnes lives in a village in CAMEROON. Her husband died in 2005 leaving her with 3 children to support. The eldest dropped out of school because of their perilous financial situation. Meanwhile Agnes struggles to pay for the younger ones to stay at high school.

Legal difficulties

Although legally married, Agnes was not issued with a marriage certificate. Some time later, her husband married a second wife. She was an educated lady and insisted on being issued with a certificate. This became significant when the husband died, as she had the legal right to claim all her husband's property and Agnes and her family were left with nothing. Now the second wife occupies the main house with her children, and Agnes and her family are relegated to an outhouse.

Sewing to reap

Agnes had learned tailoring and embroidery and had bought herself a sewing machine. She was unable to produce enough garments to make sufficient income but thanks to a ROPE small-business loan she has also been able to start selling provisions increasing her profitability and things are going well.