A few of us have had the wonderful
opportunity to get to know a few of the mama’s from Jesca Olotu’s women’s group.
A little bit of history about Jiendeleze Women’s Group - they started in 2010
with 50-60 members. Many of these women have similar backgrounds and the same
culture but the stories and experiences they shared with us are very different.
For example, Matilda a 45 year-old mother of 10 has recently lost her eldest
child who was 25. She continues to struggle with that but knows she needs to
keep it to herself because she still has 9 kids to care for. Birnedieta is 50
years old and is the mother of 6 children, she also has suffered the loss of a
child and her husband. We came to realize that it is these similarities that
brought them to the women’s group. As a member of the women’s group they have
different projects that they work on throughout the year including: soap
making, jam for sandwiches, clothing and jewelry. It is those projects that
create the income for the women’s group. Meeting with the women was incredible,
they were so happy to see us and they would not stop thanking us for the
donations of rice and soap that we gave. One woman wouldn’t stop dancing and
shaking our hands because she was so stoked to finally have rice for dinner and
soap to clean her clothes. Seeing the women this happy about something that we
have taken for granted and even began to complain about over the last few days
was really eye opening. Before leaving we were lucky enough to see three of the
women’s homes, all were very different. Seeing how they live and what they go
through everyday compared to what we see and experience in the US is
dramatically different. We are very glad we had the opportunity to meet them
and here their stories!
*Jeanine will be selling some of the products the women
make so if you are interested just let her know once we get back! :)
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