An Interview with Hannah Daye
Let’s talk about the Skills Training Center. How long ago was it opened? What is the purpose?
The Restoration Skills Training Center began in June 2018. From June 2018 to present, the school has enrolled 96 students in total. One of the main purposes is to empower women with skills that will help them build wealth through business.
How many women have gone through?
In November 2020, the Skills Training Center hosted the first graduation. 26 students successfully completed two years of training in tailoring and fashion design, and they received a certificate and sewing machine to keep.
Why was it so important to open this?
Female unemployment is one of the main obstacles to development in Liberia. There are few opportunities to get stable employment, so, with the skills they learn from this project, it will empower them to start a business, to earn a living, and to sustain and provide for their family and communities as they build their business.
Tell us about some of the challenges Liberian women face.
There are many challenges that women are faced with in Liberia, some are gender-based violence (rape, domestic violence, and sexual exploitation), the lack of a marketable vocation, and technical skills, lack of education, and access to justice.
How has the Skills Training Center made an impact on your community? The Skills Training Center has brought new members to the Jonestown Church of Christ, helping women in my community to be self-sufficient through job creation.
As an entrepreneur yourself, tell us why you feel drawn to this project.
Female empowerment has always been one of my main focuses, and now the Skills Training Center is our new home of empowerment. A woman walks in and leaves with a new trade that with help herself and other females around her.
What are your hopes for this project in the future?
My hope to see this project grow from tailoring to adding other skills like soap-making, baking, handcrafts, hairdressing, and much more.
How do you see God moving in Liberia today?
With everything going on in the world today, God has protected Liberia from this pandemic with low cases. After what we went through with Ebola, our healthcare system cannot handle another crisis like this.
Talk a little about carrying on the legacy that your father set forth.
My greatest desire is to help build my country in every way possible. My father Isaac has been my greatest inspiration. His love for sharing the Gospel and building up the next generation of pastors in Liberia has pushed me to want to build the next generation of female Christians. Our aim is to create entrepreneurs who will carry our nation forth with the Skills Training Center and the gari production project (at Restoration Bible and Agriculture Institute).
I love that the motto of Restoration’s ministry is “saved to serve.” That is the vision behind everything that my father is doing, so I am going to walk in his same footsteps to continue serving my community.
Hannah is a big part of the Daye family’s ministry outreach in Liberia. Although she grew up in The Gambia, she has returned to Liberia where she is very active in the schools, especially the women’s sewing school.
These ministries are in good hands with Hannah. She is smart, innovative, and has a passionate love for God’s people. We are all blessed by her.