Meet the Clients Micheline

Country: Democratic Republic of Congo

Micheline is a farmer from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Before she farmed, she had an unstable income and struggled to send her children to school. With skills training from Opportunity International in finance and agriculture, she has been able to improve her farming business. She now no longer struggles to provide for her family. 

Micheline lives in DRC with her husband and 5 children. In order to earn a living, Micheline used to buy and sell on flour and buckets. However this was not a stable income. This, combined with her husband being away for work at long periods of time, meant she would sometimes struggle to pay her children’s school fees on time.

To generate a more stable income, Micheline took up farming. Opportunity International provided Micheline with training in finances and agriculture, helping her to diversify her crops, improve her yield and manage her finances.

The GAP training has changed my approach to farming. I now take careful note of what pesticides and fertiliser I buy and have a noticed a change in my crops. I also have learnt about diversification which has increased their yield by preventing disease.

Overall, since this training, I would guess my harvest has tripled in size.

Micheline now feels empowered to manage her finances and invest in her business. She has a vision to expand her business and to build a house for her family.

My children no longer have to starve. Before they could spend up to a week just having one small meal a day, but now they have two maybe three and we no longer have to worry about having to pay for school fees. I hope that my children will be able to complete their studies and go to university and after university, I hope that they will be able to get good jobs

Micheline has hopes for more women to have the opportunity to change their lives like she did.

We can’t always rely on men to provide for us. I believe that women should be financially independent because we are the ones who care for the house. Women are not respected yet in the Congo; we are not valued. If we were valued, we would be given better support.