Almost every inch of the walls in Ireine Gbogbo’s shop are covered with African women modelling beautiful dresses. These are the designs that Ireine bases the dresses her and her apprentices make on. Another wall is taken up with a full length mirror and above it hang the fabrics she purchases from the market – customers can either choose one of these fabrics to have their dress made from, or they can bring in their own. It takes 1-2 days to make dresses like this, which are seen on the women all around Cotonou. The number of customers can fluctuate according to the season, which can be difficult, but Ireine has managed to maintain the business for 14 years now. She receives a lot of orders during celebrations. She now has 7 sewing machines, and with her most recent loan bought a machine for embroidery. She believes in investing in the business so she has taken on 6 apprentices to date (2 more since her last lendwithcare loan), who she teaches for 3 years, by which point they have achieved their diploma. There are two signs that hang in her shop. The first says: ‘Tolerance is not a weakness’ and the second: “I have not gold nor money nor diamonds but I have my ten fingers and they are my hopes”. Ireine is pictured here with Roblania Da Costa from our mfi partner, ACFB
Emma Howard, 5th June 2012