Stella and Anna

Meet Stella. She is 49 years old and comes from Kikigati. She birthed 11 children of who 7 are still alive, and has 1 grandchild - 5 others have died. She has been a widow since 2000. Stella is Coordinator of the three widows groups in Kikigati, involved with them in the gardens, in meetings and with other activities. She tells me that the widows meet monthly, and each one brings 1,000 shillings to the meeting (about 65 cents). The names of those present are put into a bag, and the person whose name is drawn from the bag, can buy whatever they want - a lantern, plates, a dress. I met Stella in 2007, and had her old sewing machine repaired for her and gave her a new one (the old one was in such bad repair that I didn't really believe she could sew with it). Since then, she has taught 8 others to sew on a treadle, but they have only repaired old clothing, having no new cloth to sew. Stella lives in a house with a leaking roof, and has to move the sewing machines around during the rains so that they don't get wet. We have asked Perez to look into the cost of either new roofing, or if the house is in bad repair, new housing. Stella is one determined lady, and has already shown that she has the capacity to teach others. We want to support this fine lady in her efforts.
Anna is 38 and from Rubingo, widowed in 1998 and raising her three children on her own, plus a niece who is an orphan. Her oldest child, Saphan, has completed P-7, but there are no funds for him to continue on to Secondary School. Yesterday we told Anna that we would find the funds for Saphan to continue, and he will join Barbra at Bugamba Secondary School, where he had already been accepted. First he must purchase a mattress, sheets, a basin, towel, file folders, an identity card, and other miscellaneous items. We will help Anna do that in town before she returns to her village at the end of the week. There is also a uniform to be purchased. She was extremely happy when we gave her the news, as were Knight and Kamida, both of whom have sons who are to be sponsored by a very generous Canadian who saw their story in this blog. Isaac will learn mechanics, specializing in motorcycles, and Swabu will learn building skills.

Barbra and Loidah

Barbra and Loidah are students at Rushanje Secondary School, who we began sponsoring when they completed P-7, the last year of Primary School. Now they are in S-3, they are working hard, and their marks are good. Barbra's father is an HIV client. She has four younger siblings. Loidah's father is described as a drunkard, who sold the family plot against the mother's wishes, and left her to raise 6 children alone. The third student we visited on Friday was at another school - Bugamba Secondary School. Both her parents are HIV clients (this is the language now used both for HIV positive people and people with AIDS). She is the eldest of 4 children. All three of these girls are boarders, and assistance has been promised to them as long as they keep their marks up.

Alice's Sewing School

Last Friday (the last day I was able to post to the blog), Perez drove us to Rubingo, about two and a half hours over red and rutted roads, where Alice has her sewing school. This is it. I was standing outside when I took this photo, so it gives you an idea how small it is. There is another room of almost equal size attached to it, with woven mats on the floor, which her students use when it is raining. Otherwise they study under the corrugated iron roofing attached to the side of the building. She has purchased a "plot", a good sized piece of land, on which to build a new school. This will include a dormitory for the girls who come from far away to learn. She has already got the sand, aggragate rock and building blocks, and the plot has been levelled. She will be making bags for us to sell at home, which together with the other items she has made, will help her save enough to start building.
On the way down to Rubingo, we stopped to see 3 of the secondary school girls sponsored through Kitambaa - Barbra, Loidah and Barbra. I had hoped to post a photo of them too, but this computer isn't going to cooperate today, so I must wait for another day. Thank you to all who have posted comments or sent emails, in response to the blog. I haven't been able to reply, but certainly do appreciate them.

Cushion-Covers

Alice, Maudah, Tumushabe and Joy are pictured here examining the first completed cushion-cover. This is one style, and the other will use strip-piecing in a rail fence setting. Alice, Tumushabe and Maudah are having great success in making both wallhangings and placemats; there are others are not far behind. But there is still a struggling group of four, and one in particular is having a lot of difficulty. It was heart-breaking yesterday to have to tell her that her placemats still needed improvement before they would be the "good quality" they must be before I can buy them from her. She has worked so hard, and she has come a long way. She is someone who knows how to cultivate the land and grow crops, to feed her children, and to put a roof over her head. Rulers, scissors, measuring and sewing are all totally new to her. I think it was me who had expectations that were too high. So I have had to modify those, and have told her, that if she is able to measure and mark a strip of fabric, to cut it out, and to sew it together with others, by the end of the three weeks, she will have succeeded. And she will, if we can then combine her efforts into items finished by others.

Another Lydia

Lydia, from Rubingo, is 35 years old, and a widow with three children, aged 16, 14 and 8. She earns most of her income from working in the gardens. When the crops are harvested, she sells what she doesn't need. She has also learned how to weave baskets. Lydia has an indomitable spirit, and the ability to laugh in almost any situation; even when a mistake is pointed out, and she has to remove some of her stitching and do it again. The determination she shows to "make good quality", is present in all the women, and their practice is yielding constantly improving results. Twice now, I have suggested to Alice that the four women who are struggling the most, be given an alternate project to work on. And each time she has told me "No, let them finish their mats". What would be discouraging to them, she tells me, is if I were to stop them in their efforts. But sometimes I yearn to give them something a little easier to do.
Here, Joy, our translator, is taking out the stitching on a placmat. Joan and I help with this too. You can see the practice 12" huts hanging on the mat at the back of our classroom, made by the 8 students who moved onto a new project on Monday. Once they perfected this, they moved on to making 8" huts and arranging these in a wallhanging. There is a loose plan to make the 12" blocks into a lap-sized quilt either for sale or as a fund-raiser. It has become clear to both Joan and I that this project is not a one-time affair, but is the beginning of an ongoing commitment to these women and others like them. We grow more and more attached to them, the more we work with them, and feel responsible for this thing we have started.

Knight, Maudah and Tumushabe

Here is Knight, ironing her placemat. We've become used to lighting the charcoal fire each morning, so that the irons can be filled first thing. Many women have never used an iron before, and we have never used this variety, so lots of learning is being done by all. Knight is a widow from Rubingo. She's 41 years old and has 5 children whom she has been raising on her own since 1993. She is involved in gardening and making mats. She's an active memberof the widows' group in her area. Her biggest concern at the moment is her eldest son, Isaac (18), who is too old to go on to secondary school and who would like to become a mechanic.
Tumushabe and Maudah were the first two to finish their sets of four placemats. Once their mats had passed inspection, I pinned them together and wrote their names in the book in which I am recording all completed projects and the amount they will be paid for each. There was great excitement the first time this happened - clapping and whooping and singing. And the demand that their photograph be taken. Now there are at least a dozen sets of these placemats packed into one of the totes we will be taking home with us - not all perfect, but pretty impressive for first time attempts. Today one group has moved on to making huts, which will be pieced together as wallhangings.
Others are still perfecting their mat-making skills, but no-one is giving up, and those who are farther ahead are helping out those who are having a little difficulty.

Kamida

Kamida is 40 years old, and comes from Rubingo. She is a Muslim, and her husband was a polygamist. Her husband and his two other wives died of AIDS in 2004, and she has been raising all 9 of their children alone since then. They range in age from 10 to 20, and all are still at home. They completed Primary School, but she has had no funds to send them on to Secondary School. Kamida has been tested and is HIV negative. She works as a labourer and has also been involved in weaving baskets. She is hoping a sponsor might be found so that her eldest son could receive training as a mechanic. There is a strong tradition in Uganda that eldest sons look after their mothers as they grow older, something that I hadn't fully understood until this visit. So assisting eldest sons to get training proves another way to provide for widows and their families.