Haitian, 41 years old, single mother of a 10-year-old son.

She owns her own salon.

She started it, but did not graduate from the university, where she began studying Computer Engineering.

She speaks: Spanish, Creole, French and a little English.

Her son has taken many classes, including 31 lessons, to learn to read and write. She Often has to ask him to stop using the app!

Favorite courses: Mental Health, Personal Finance, and Doing Business As God intended.

Cemania tells us:
“I have learned so many new and valuable things through the application. My whole family lives in Haiti. In January, my mother passed away. Then I got very sick. Then everything was shut down due to COVID. I have a salon and no one would come to visit me. A facilitator from Esperanza came and encouraged me to take the Mental Health course, and I did. It helped me a lot to get over my depression. It all comes from your mind, and if your mind is not organized, neither will your business.

The lesson on corporate image also helped me a lot. Due to my depression and the situation we were in, my business and my home were disorganized. After taking that lesson, I decided to start organizing everything right. This has helped me overcome the challenges of this pandemic, organizing things and taking my classes.

Before taking classes on the app, I had attended personal finance trainings, but it was difficult to apply things in my business. The app helps, because I can take the lessons and then follow the suggestions. After taking personal finance, I applied everything it said to my life. I started writing down exactly how much I spent on products and how much I sold. I realized that I had a bad habit of simply taking what was left over and spending it all on new products (to sell), and this class helped me understand how important it is to first register things before spending the money on them.

The course also helped me sell during the pandemic. No one wanted to come to my salon to do their hair or nail polish because of COVID. After taking a lesson, I applied the idea of ​​calling my clients to see how they were doing. After chatting for a while, most said, “Oh, I would love to do my hair, but I don’t want to leave the house.”I told them I would go to them, and that’s what I do now! I have my hair dryer with me, and I’m going to do their hair and paint their nails”.

As a single mother, I really like parenting courses. I have been able to explain to my son that it is an unexpected circumstance and explain what is happening in words that he understands. Before I took the classes, he complained a lot about not being able to go to school or see his friends. Now that he and I are taking classes, things have changed. After taking the course, “How to support my son at home”, I organized the house around his schedule and his homework, making sure that his room was set up so that he would learn well. I encourage you to set up the room, put stickers on the products and organize everything. Now he understands the importance of my business, and often he says to me: “Today I want to help you in the salon.”

It’s so easy these days to just complain about what’s going on, saying that everything is horrible and not working. That is not going to change anything. I am grateful, and I say that things are going well, because they are.

Before knowing the app, I used to watch soap operas before going to sleep. Now I open the application and take my classes. Sometimes I even set goals: I can’t sleep until I finish a course. Now, instead of just looking at something, I am learning things that will benefit my business and my life”.