Natalie Appolon is 30 years old and one of 36 students at this year’s transitional sewing class in Rigaud Haiti. She is married and has four children, three daughters and a son. Her husband is a police officer.
Natalie at work.
Basic to advanced.
Natalie has earlier trained as a beautician. However she wanted to develop herself more and create broader knowledge and economic base for her future, to enable herself to work with different things so she can give children a better future she wanted to learn about sewing. She heard about Star of Hope’s sewing classes and thought it sounded good so she signed up.
After nine weeks of the course, students have come to the dress number seven. The class is going very well, according to the course leader Myrtha Dor and all students do their best to develop and become skilled seamstresses and keep up with the fast paced teachings.
See photographs from the project from our own Dennis Thern
Natalie says that the course is more fun and better than she had thought. She works quickly and safely in the classroom, and will gladly help the others when they ask for help. However, she has had difficulty completing two of the last homework assignments.She explains:“There has been a lot going on at home and at school for the children. With three girls it becomes time intensive to fix their hair and their school items each day. They want to be good at school so I'll do my best all the time with them. But I'm fighting back soon to get the work done.
Natalie also says she has already received the use of her new skills and she believes that in the end she will be able to earn more money thanks to the course. One item is as the school year starts all the children in the community must have new uniforms.
For Star of Hope - Dennis Thern text and photos