The Sewing Workshop
- Introducing the Mama Africa sewing workshop
- The Project!
- The Women Behind the Scenes
- Working all Day, Every Day!
- The Mama Africa Story
- Mama Africa Products
Introducing the Mama Africa sewing workshop
The Project!
Mama Africa offers sewing classes for a group of women. Volunteer sewing trainers regularly attend the workshop offering group and one-to-one training sessions with all of the Mama Africa women. The women are trained in making various items of clothing and accessories including bags, towels, headbands and aprons. The workshop has also ventured into the art of bead-work and has succeeded in presenting a beautiful selection of necklaces, bracelets, key rings and earrings.
These goods are then sold at the local markets or at private sales. Mama Africa is currently able to hire seven local women at the workshop, paying them a small basic salary for their help. Mama Africa hopes that by next year the sewing workshop will be able to afford up to 17 salaries. The staff salaries come from the revenue brought about by the workshop sales. Any remaining funds are then used towards other OSF projects or for purchasing more sewing goods.
We are currently training our lovely ladies of the community in designing and making bags, towels, aprons and beauty-cases.
The workshop receives its sewing material from various sources – notably donations from individual donors and scraps from material shops. It has been able to purchase some materials, but because of limited funding, this is not yet possible on a regular basis.
The majority of the workshop goods are made out of the local Kikoi material - a %100 cotton material found throughout Eastern Africa.
The women behind the scenes…
Sewing all day, every day!
The Mama Africa Story
*Construction*
Then we finally had the floor completed:
After the completion of the basic workshop building, OSF purchased and organised the delivery of 17 brand new manual sewing machines and desks. We were also able to provide a large supply of material to get everything going!
The workshop has only recently been set-up to the Kenyapower service for a basic electricity supply allowing the women to work later at night in a comfortably lit room.
The project will invest in a safe for the new sewing machines at the workshop. Theft is a major problem within the slums – every scrap of metal, wood, plastic bag; anything can be of value and can be sold for food or medicine. It is an unhappy truth, something that has to, unfortunately, be taken very seriously.
We would like to start implementing new water conservation techniques at as many of our project locations as possible. Our main idea is to develop a gutter system that feeds into an underground water barrel so that collected rainwater can be kept cool preventing any water loss by evaporation. This water can then be used for consumption, cleaning or cooking by the members.
No matter how simple this may seem, putting this kind of project into action still takes money
That's where you come in!
The Trocaire Kenya program Manager was also very happy to give a presentation regarding their efforts and cooperation with OSF EA and their views and hopes for the Workshop.
Following the conference, we were honoured by the entertainment offered by the children from the 5 local schools. They sang, danced and read out poems for us all at the event.
The event not only gathered quite an impressive crowd from all the bystanders coming from the surrounding local communities; it also attracted the press!
*The First Ever Sales! (Nairobi)*
*Mama Africa Sales in Belgium*
The Mama Africa products
