Single mother overcomes adversity and graduates as a barber in the Opportunity 14-24 program

Santo Domingo.– At only 24 years old, Ana María Sierra managed to turn a story marked by poverty, violence, and early motherhood into an example of personal achievement, graduating this Saturday as a barber through the Oportunidad 14-24 program.

Sierra, a single mother of three children, became the only woman to graduate from the men's hairdressing training program at the Extension of the Vocational School in the municipality of "Yaguate", in the province of "San Cristóbal."

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During her intervention, the young woman recounted that she grew up in a home with great economic difficulties after her parents' separation, which forced her to face life with responsibilities from a very early age.

"At 14, I got pregnant and felt a lot of fear. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but when my daughter was born, I understood that I had a reason to keep fighting," she expressed when sharing her story.

The young woman explained that for nine years she lived in a relationship marked by psychological, physical, and verbal abuse. In the midst of despair, she came to think about taking her own life, but she assured that the look of her children gave her the strength needed to move forward.

After ending that relationship, she returned to live with her mother and began working selling empanadas in the streets to support her children. “It wasn't easy, but with sacrifices and tears I have been able to bring them forward,” she stated.

The opportunity to change their reality came when a community intervention team from the program visited their home and presented them with the available training options.

“When they told me about the barbering course, I got excited, because I am a person who likes to do different things. In my town there is no female barber, and at that moment I said: why not me?”, she related.

Ana is one of the more than 4,000 young people who graduated in the ceremony headed by President Luis Abinader of the Oportunidad 14-24 program, an initiative promoted by the Dominican government that seeks to train young people in vulnerable conditions to facilitate their insertion into the labor market. The program offers technical training in various areas, socio-emotional support, and opportunities for employment, education, or entrepreneurship, with the aim of promoting the social and productive inclusion of young people who were outside the education or labor system.