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Who is this month’s Champion?
Jacqueline Marshall who hails from Barbados and now lives in Trinidad and Tobago. She has been the driving force of ‘Springing Up’, an NGO that has been operating in Malawi, Africa, for the past eighteen years. Its aim has been to encourage and stimulate women entrepreneurs in poverty stricken villages and communities.
Why is Jacqueline our Champion?
Jacqueline displays tremendous passion and commitment to her cause. ‘Springing Up’s’ business model is based upon a simple premise - the teaching of the soft skills of sewing within common village areas and the establishment of a cooperative enterprise to share business profits. ‘We teach our women to sew garments, baby items, curtains, throw cushions etc. We then try to get orders from other towns or larger business so the women can generate income from their work’. She has also recognized the importance of computer and adult literacy and, where possible, has incorporated these into her training programmes.
What has she achieved to date?
To date Jacqueline has established eighteen sewing schools and four computer and adult literacy centres throughout Malawi. Jacqueline admits that her experiences have not always been exhilarating. ‘It was difficult to adjust to life in Malawi. There is little or no infrastructure. There are language and cultural barriers, extreme poverty, rampant sickness and disease and, in some instances, downright hostility and open resistance towards what we are trying to do.’
What has made her a success?
She credits her success to her strong faith in God and the networks she has established in Malawi. ‘Words cannot express what I feel when I see the changes that Springing Up has caused in the lives of our women. Some leave us to start their own businesses. Others stay with the cooperative and others get empowered through the simple fact that they have learnt a skill.’ Our Champion is truly making a real difference in the lives of impoverished women in Africa, despite great hardships and multiple challenges.
What are Jacqueline’s future plans?
In May 2008 Jacqueline successfully started a sewing centre in L’anse Mitan, Trinidad, with twenty students. She intends to establish similar centres in Carenage and Maloney during 2009 and is confident that the positive outcomes that were generated in Africa can be effectively duplicated here in the lives of our women and rural communities.
What does this mean to T&T?
It is inspirational people like Jacqueline who change the lives of people who often otherwise face a future of hopelessness and despair. By creating a focus, raising personal self-esteem, and showing people that they ‘really can do it’, combined they can lead to a far more rewarding and positive future for such disadvantaged people. Her work helps to rescue people from a life of poverty and crime. It’s fascinating that this Champion’s story started in Africa and is now being replicated here in her adopted home country.
Key question: How much is a lack of investment in building self-esteem and self-confidence costing T&T each year?
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