The Women of Mfuwe, Zambia

          

My husband, Keith, my sister, Mary, her husband, Gill, and our friend, Pam, had the opportunity to work with these amazing women when we traveled to Zambia in July. They are the members of the Mfuwe Aids Support Awareness Tailoring Project. This project was started by a wonderful man named Evans Graff. The project is made up of 9 women, who are all HIV positive, and a professional tailor named James. The purpose is to teach the women to sew and sell a variety of products. Their products, which include bags, bibs, pillow cases, shirts, skirts, headbands, etc are made from their local fabric called Chitenje. The profit from the sales of these items is shared among the women to help support themselves and their children. 

Meeting with Evans

We all started out making flowers that could be used on everything from headbands to bags or to pin on a top as pictured on Margarita.

We had so much fun working together.

The irons and some of the electric sewing machines were purchased with money raised in a raffle and by donations made  here in Tucson and from other places as friends and even strangers heard about the project.

Mary is showing James, the tailor, how to use one of the new machines.

Pam is looking at Chitenje material for a sewing project. 

Even baby was a wonderful member of  the group.

Colorful bibs made from Chitenje material

We were so impressed with the dedication of everyone involved in this project. All the people were so welcoming and took good care of us as you will see in my next blog post.