"I'm going to go with the poorest so they don't crush them"

He was traveling from Sakone, a small town near Kaolak in Senegal, to the country's capital, Dakar, when he first noticed the area.

“From Rufisque to Dakar there was only land, land and land.

But we were already beginning to glimpse barracks.

And I said, oh, this is poorly prepared.

People are going to come to build shacks here because those who have moved from the villages to the city cannot live.”

That intuition of Sister Regina Casado (Rodanillo, district of Bembibre, León, 82 years old) is today a reality.

Most of the 12,000 inhabitants of Pikine, in Dakar, came from all corners of Sengal and other neighboring countries to flee rural poverty

Sam Sam III is the name of the neighborhood that arose in the municipality of Pikine, on the outskirts of Dakar.

Most of its 12,000 inhabitants came from all corners of Senegal and some neighboring countries to flee rural poverty.

Each one built where and how he could.

The area lacks basic services, paved roads or good sanitation, among many other things.

Therefore, when it rains, the water stagnates and floods houses and streets.

Few young people in the area finish basic education and the lack of work causes them to gather on street corners waiting for a miracle to change their luck.

The girls wait for their parents to find a man to marry them off and, thus, go from doing housework in their parents' home to that of their husbands.

All this and more was intuited by the religious of the congregation of the Daughters of the Child Jesus (popularly known as Black Ladies) and for this reason she settled there in the year 2000, together with a group of Piarist Brothers who opened a school.

Her superior allowed her to stay for a year and it's been almost 22.

It was in 1968 when this petite woman, with eyes full of life, who cannot sit still for a second and sometimes gets flustered when speaking because her mind is faster than her mouth, set foot in Africa for the first time.

It was in Cameroon.

She abandoned her music studies so as not to miss the opportunity to travel.

After two decades, she returned to Spain and worked for a few years in the Raval neighborhood in Barcelona, ​​before being assigned to Senegal in 1992.

“I lived a childhood of poverty and I saw that, because you had nothing, people crushed you.

My vocation, not religious life, but mission, came from there: I'm going to go with the poorest so they don't crush them, do you understand?

And my life is to educate them to be people who defend themselves and keep all their rights and all their dignity, ”he explains about his motivations.

That is what Sister Regina has done all these years: improve the condition of the women she has come across, offering them comprehensive training, from literacy to basic notions that make life easier for them.

Above all, she has taught them sewing so that they can earn an income as quality dressmakers.

In recent years, she has introduced computers into her program so that the beneficiaries of her program also have access to new technologies.

Likewise, she has opened a cooking school in Sam Sam III.

The last steps taken have led her to help young women to create a sewing cooperative that they direct and manage themselves, former students who have associated themselves to produce more and obtain better income.

The same does with those who study cooking.

In addition, these have a small restaurant where you can savor quality dishes or have a coffee.

Much of what he has achieved has been thanks to the support of the Best Africa program of the Santander Foundation and Manos Unidas.

Thousands of women have been trained by the nun in all these years.

"I tell my girls: you work to be people with all your dignity, to show people that you know how to direct your life, that you know how to win," explains the nun, who gets emotional when talking about the changes in the lives of her students he has witnessed.

“I see it when they come to visit me.

Many have gotten married and others haven't, because sometimes their marriage also turns out wrong, but they have children, they are clean, well educated, they go to school... They themselves know how to live in a more dignified way.

Some of them took sewing training and are now running workshops and training other girls.

They already have the spirit of creativity, of seeing other possibilities in their lives, beyond waiting for their parents to marry them”.

I tell God that he only gives me the head and the strength to be able to work.

The day I can't let him make me fall like this,

, and it's over."

regina

Sister Regina's ultimate dream is to open a carpentry school for the boys.

The lack of work means that most of them have nothing to do all day and, in the end, many fall into drugs or dream of migrating.

For this reason, says the nun, she also wants to offer them new opportunities through professional training: “More than carpentry, it will be a joinery, to give them a professional title.

Because there are carpentry shops everywhere, but due to lack of training, what they do is not very good.

I tell the people here that everything has to be perfect;

then, we open the computer, I show them well-made furniture and I insist: 'look, this is how the work you do should be'.

In other words, you have to offer quality so that people are encouraged to place an order”.

As for the possibility of returning to Spain, Sister Regina states: "I don't even think about it, but if my superiors tell me to return, I will have to obey."

She then clarifies: “I tell God that he only give me the head and the strength to be able to work.

The day I can't, make me fall like this,

, and it's over."

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