WHEN Coleen Dyer was deported to Jamaica from the United Kingdom in 2004, she felt her life had hit rock bottom. But on July 28, the 33-year-old mother of four was feeling good about herself again.

Armed with a certificate from the HEART/NTA Garmex Academy, the Spanish Town resident was making plans to sell pillows and drapes in different parts of the island.

She was among 21 women deported from the United Kingdom and the United States who graduated from a six-month course in garment and drapery production, soft furnishing, interior decorating, and floral arrangement, as well as marketing and business development.

“I feel wonderful and important to know that at my age I can go back to school and graduate. I’m feeling good,” Dyer said, a smile creeping across her face.

No stranger to sewing, the course was a refresher for Dyer, who was especially grateful for what she learned about running a small business.

“I plan to sell out in the country (rural Jamaica) ,” she said of her drapes and pillows.

The graduation of the participants in the Hibiscus Jamaica Joint Migration and Development Initiative project was held at the Garmex Academy in Kingston on Wednesday.

St Rachel Ustanny, programme manager of Hibiscus Jamaica, a non-government organisation dedicated to the resettlement and reintegration of deported female migrants mainly from the UK, told Career & Education that the project was funded with a grant, valued at approximately Euro 99,000, from the European Union.

She said during the project, which runs from October 2009 to March 2011, the progress of the women will be monitored in terms of their use of their new skills and supporting their children. Not all the women were deported for smuggling drugs, as some had overstayed their time in the UK, Ustanny noted.

Helen Jenkinson, who represented the European Union, congratulated the graduates and said practical projects represented the way forward for the women to rebuild their lives and contribute to the society. She hoped that the course would become a model for the Caribbean region. She also called on the private sector and other donors to assist the women with sewing machines.

Guest speaker at the function, poet and motivational speaker Mutabaruka told the graduates that they were in good company in that Jamaica’s first national hero Marcus Garvey was himself deported from the US for mail fraud. He urged the women to adopt Garvey’s philosophy to have confidence in themselves in order to succeed. However, he noted that jobs were hard to come by, even for recent university graduates.

“Nothin nuh out deh. I wouldn’t suggest that everyone going to get place (in a job). This is an opportunity to say ‘what idea can I develop to create a business for myself?’ ,” Mutabaruka said.

Meanwhile, an upbeat Dyer had a word of advice to women in similar difficult situations.

“Don’t hold back yourself. Look to the future because it’s not the end of the world. You can go to school and get a skill to become independent. Do it for yourself, not for others ,” she said.

There are more than 100 Jamaican women incarcerated in UK prisons for drug offenses, but many others are awaiting deportation for lesser offences.