The hunt for good deals

"I don't like to ask, " says one of the women at Pascale Zaourou's workshop. There are a handful of them, for two sessions given during the week, at the Kopplabunz women's meeting centre. The profiles are very diverse, from Leïla* (name changed), a Moroccan woman who cannot read or write French, to a woman who was a university director in her country, but who has not had her diplomas recognized by Luxembourg’s authorities. What brings them together in this workshop is the daily hardship they have to face to make ends meet each month. Foreigners, no family support, without knowing the languages of the country, they cling to improve their daily lives.

Pascale Zaourou has been in Luxembourg for 14 years. This Ivorian woman went through France before settling down here, at the time with a child and a baby on her hands. A very difficult situation for the young woman, so she knows very well what she is talking about. Now president of the Liaison Committee of Foreigners' Associations (Clae), she is keen to pass on her experience to women in the same situation as her. This single mother knows all the tricks, all the good deals, all the help to ask the administration, all the associations to apply to, in short, she has a lot of information to share that is not always accessible to the most destitute. She has modestly produced a guidebook, Luxembourg pas cher, in which she details all the good deals she has identified, sometimes just the list of banks in the country. Not necessarily obvious when you arrive here without knowing anything.