Sewing machines continue to be in high demand!

Some members of our group took out suitcases full of material, sewing threads & machine parts, scissors, needles, poppers and other pieces of useful equipment and we visited 2 groups to distribute these and to teach their members how to make the pads.  We had recently provided both groups with sewing machines and the women were very excited to receive their training.  As you can see from the photos, the place was soon a hive of activity with templates being cut out and the women being shown how to put all the pieces together.  We were with Kibanda Women’s Group for a few hours in the morning and they provided us with a veritable feast at lunchtime and, as always, there was a lot of singing and dancing – see video below of their ‘leaving song’.

The second group we visited was Bududa Nakatsi Landslide group of teenage mothers.  The numbers in this group has been increasing, partly due to the effect of the pandemic when lots of teenage girls got pregnant and dropped out of school.  The lady who runs the group is a skilled seamstress herself and the girls go through a complete tailoring course – starting with paper patterns – and on completion of the course they will hopefully be able to get a job or set up their own business.  Again, the girls were very keen to learn this new skill and we spent a very happy couple of hours with them.