Pascale-Marie first left Côte d’Ivoire to study and work in Morocco. She soon made new plans to travel to Europe when she realized that the reality was far from what she had hoped for. Those plans, however, would almost cost her her life.

After contacting a smuggler and making a first unsuccessful attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea on an inflatable boat from Morocco, Pascale-Marie traveled to Libya, where she would try again just a few months later. This attempt would prove to be nearly fatal. Just a few hours after departure, the boat capsized, leaving Pascale-Marie stranded in the open sea. Fortunately, she was spotted by local fishermen who rescued her and took her back to shore. Realizing that reaching Europe was not worth losing her life, Pascale-Marie decided to return to Côte d’Ivoire.

Once home, she enrolled in the ICMC/ECC entrepreneurship and financial management training program, learning the basic skills she needed to run her business. She also credits the ECC for the support she received to help her overcome the stigma that returnees face. “As a returning migrant, reintegration is not easy. It’s difficult. People look at you strangely, and you are a bit cast aside. [The ECC] really helped me,” she says.

Now the owner of a spices and herbs booth in Abidjan, Pascale-Marie says she learned she did not need to leave her home country to be successful and shares that same lesson with her community, pleading for her brothers and sisters to remain here and invest in their country. “I tell my brothers and sisters to stay in Africa. Together, we will build a strong Africa, a developed Africa,” she says.