Lettie Martins is the pre-school teacher. She also makes house visits in the community, under the auspices of the Trust clinic. And, after hours, she’s the one talking and laughing in the sewing class, making sure everyone there is gaining as much as she is.

“In the beginning, I was too shy to talk, and I knew no English. Now, as you can see, I don’t mind to talk at all. I was a domestic worker and I had two children. This opportunity (at the Trust) came in 1989 and I had to talk to myself. ‘You will do this,’ I said to myself.

“My confidence started growing. I made a decision to have no more children. I told myself: ‘I will stand on my own. I will do what I want. And what I want is not to go back to domestic work and being a wife and mother.’ I told myself: ‘I will make my own confidence.’

“Now I can communicate with other adults without being shy. I used to disappear in large groups but now I have my own confidence.”