Hermine Boni got a scholarship thanks to the SWEDD project in Benin.

Nineteen-year-old Hermine was able to continue her studies in electrical engineering at the Lycée Technique de Natitingou in 2022, thanks to a grant from the SWEDD project. The support is enabling her to approach the future with great ambition.

One of 14 children from a farming family, Hermine describes her enrolment on a technical course as a “miracle”. Since fourth grade, she has been passionate about electricity. After passing her brevet (end-of-school exams) in 2021 in Natitingou, the town in northern Benin where she lives with her family, she enrolled to study
electrical engineering at a technical high school. However, problems arose when her father fell ill and was hospitalized, which put a strain on the family budget. Despite this, Hermine continued to attend classes.

One day, while she was writing an essay, the school bursar walked into her classroom to ask her to pay the school fees. “Since the start of the school year, I’d been feeling ashamed. As a rule, new students must pay the first instalment before the start of the course.” Not knowing which way to turn, she could not bring herself to stop going to class. Morning and evening, she continued the long walk to and from school. Once there, she avoided the bursar by hiding behind her classmates whenever she spotted him. While her parents were asking her to return to general education, where the fees are lower, she found out that SWEDD scholarships were available to support girls in technical subjects.

The support from SWEDD is designed to boost girls’ employability by encouraging them to take up careers usually pursued by men. “I felt happy again and I quickly applied for the scholarship. To my delight, I was accepted. I’m grateful to the SWEDD project, which let me hold my head high and study how I wanted to,” she said. 

Relieved and confident, she is now preparing for her certificat d’aptitude professionnelle (vocational qualification) and looking forward to a bright future, in which she could well seeherself becoming director of the Beninese Electric Power Company or even Minister for Energy. Her message for the Stronger Together campaign: “A girl with a diploma in technical education and with vocational training is an asset fordevelopment. So let’s invest in her.”

Find out how the SWEDD project is changing lives in Benin and across sub-Saharan Africa in the book SWEDD in Action: Promoting Women's Full Potential here