Monday, July 31, 2017

Powerful Women (Caitlyn and Rachel)

 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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