Building a Future Through Leadership
Mabinty Thullay, a 36-year-old mother of three, is a thriving entrepreneur in Mafaray, Sierra Leone. She farms and trades in fuel, rice, and groundnuts—but her true passion is education. Thanks to support from a CARE Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA), she gained financial independence, and with it, the confidence to step into a leadership role.
“My husband never wanted to me to join the VSLA,” Mabinty recalls. “But after the first cycle, he became interested. This is how I started contributing and supporting the home. This is how I convinced him to join the VLSA. Now, we combine our shares to run the family shares together.”
Noticing that there were only male teachers at the local primary school, Mabinty “thought it fit that women can also do what men do.” She spoke to the head teacher and soon became the school’s first female teacher.
Now, she’s encouraging other women to follow in her footsteps.
