Justina, Knight and Sheilla

As in the first two years, several of the Bitengye women needed medical attention while they were attending the workshop. Justina was first to come to our attention. This 47 year old mother of six children, had spent all her earnings last year on food for her family, the needs of the 6 families of relatives who live nearby to her and come to her regularly for assistance, and had neglected her own health. When she saw the doctor at the clinic, he prescribed an amazing 6 different medications for her rampant infection. She was feeling a lot better by the end of the workshop, and hopes she will have enough earnings this year to continue
work on a new house for herself. "One by one makes a bundle", she told me. Knight and Dorothy both needed glasses prescribed this year. And Knight needed ongoing treatment for her congestive heart failure, first diagnosed when we were here last year. As for Sheilla, at 24 she is still the youngest
member of the group, and in much better health than last year. She has realized the importance of taking her HIV medication every day, and feels better for it - an important thing as the mother of two small children. Every day she came early to the workshop, to sweep up the floor from the previous days' scraps and to light the charcoal fire for the irons, and if there was time, to get a head start on her sewing for that day. What I find staggering, is how women have to put up with ill health - they simply suffer and continue working, through ailments that are really grim. I wonder if providing ongoing medical care should be a part of the Kitambaa Sewing Project, to make sure that each of these women gets the care they need in a timely way, year round . . . I think so.

Sheilla and Bright

Sheilla is the youngest member of the Bitengye Designers, and is 22. She has a daughter, Viola, who is 3, and here she is with her six month old son, Bright. She lives here in Ruharo, in a small mud hut with her mother. Her mother has been ill for sometime, although feeling much better this year, and Sheilla is her caregiver. Her sister and niece have come to stay with their mother while Sheilla attends the workshop. Recheal has a neighbour to look after her 3 year old until the other children come home from school, at which point Christia, who is 8, looks after all four children. In Kikagati, the cook had a one-month old baby, whom she strapped to the back of her 10 year old daughter, to look after while she was working. And this is much more the norm - babies strapped to the backs of children who have barely left babyhood themselves. There's something to be said for the older children taking responsibility for the younger children (when we were first married, David was newly returned from Burundi, and saw no reason we shouldn't have twelve children, because of this very thing!); but is vastly different from the responsibilities we give to our children back in Canada.

A Hot Day in Mbarara

Yesterday (Wednesday) was a hot one. The ladies worked hard on their table runners all day, and most of them had finished their first one by six o'clock, when they returned to the hostel where they are staying. Yesterday was also the first lesson in putting on binding, and here are Tumushabe, Sheilla and Maudah, who found one of the coolest spots in the garden to sit in while they did the hand stitching. Today they will continue with these table runners - I think you'll like them. A quilting friend on the Sunshine Coast showed me how to make these, when I was at their retreat last fall. Thank you so much!

Sheilla and Maudah

Sheilla is 22 years old, and from Rubingo. She has a 2 year old daughter, Viola. Sheilla is HIV positive and is also caregiver to her mother, a widow, who is also HIV positive. Viola is negative. Sheilla had already taken classes in tailoring, but was looking for some way to sew from home, and joined our group when one of the ladies from Kikigati was unable to come. She likes to sew fast, but has also become skilled in also sewing carefully, during her time in class. Here she is holding up one of the cushion-cover designs the women have been working on.

And here is Maudah with another style of cushion cover. Maudah is from Lake Bunyoni. She is 41 years old and has four children, aged 12 to 20. Her fifth pregnancy was a difficult one, and the baby was stillborn. The delay in getting her to hospital resulted in some permanent injury, and chronic pelvic pain. No longer able to cultivate the family garden, she began to sew as alternate means to earn an income. Her quilted items are carefully sewn, and she is an extremely hard worker. She and Tumushabe will sew together when they return to the lake, and hope to earn revenue for school fees from the high quality items they make.

To date, about half the women involved in our project have required medical care. When they are back in their villages, this is not possible, and in all likelihood, they would put up with any dicomfort or illness, or resort to traditional medicine. But while they are here, they know they will be attended to at the nearby Ruharo Clinic. They have been treated for malaria, pelvic inflammatory disease, urinary tract infections, HIV-related infections and still-to-be-diagnosed conditions. This is something we did not anticipate, but is all part of working in this part of the world - a "workshop expense" one would never see in Canada.