|
Paper into Pearls
Some come out to volunteer
to see what the tourists never get to or simply don’t want to.
Others dig in to join the chorus that is singing Jeffrey Sachs’
line ‘The End of Poverty,’ and yet for a few others
volunteering goes so deep they turn their lives inside out to work
for months on end. All Black’s-loving Kiwi, Malcolm Trevena is
one of those long-term volunteering veterans who was so inspired
by the tough spirit of Uganda’s local women that he went on to
found GrassRootsUganda.com the people-friendly, jargon-free
organisation that empowers African women with the chance to make
crafts, join the international market and make a much needed
living. “My Big Idea to help the women of Africa is to build
them an online presence (GrassRootsUganda.com) from where the can
sell their goods. This will help them to reach markets that
have been traditionally well out of their reach.”
I got to travel with Malcolm and his trusted craft teacher,
Rose Ochow as they went to Buvunya, a small, gentle village deep
off Jinja road to teach a group of willing ladies how to make
beads from sheets of old calendar paper. The bead making technique
that Rose uses that would please every eco-friendly fan was
originally taught to her by an American Mission group to provide
skills and employment for the displaced women of Northern Uganda.
And thankfully unlike many of her peers, Rose was willing to share
her secrets and train another group of women, who though are not
displaced by war have as much chance of financial freedom and
independence as the ladies of the North.
The ladies start trickling into Vincent, our host’s and
translator’s house and now, the craft venue, in the late
morning. They’re shy, and quiet, whispering between themselves,
shifting their small babes to their backs in colourfully bright
Chentenges (define)– sarong like thing. It’s only when
Vincent translates what they will be taught today do you see their
beaming smiles as they learn they will become a business group and
have their jewellery sold abroad and finally be able to have some
money of their own making.
And that’s the crux of GrassRootsUganda.com , it takes
on huge problems like unemployment, inequalities and complicated
trade relations and simplifies them with a ‘One Woman One
Product’ ideology. Instead of being overwhelmed by the sheer
numbers of those who are trapped in hopeless situations,
GrassRootsUganda.com, offers web shoppers the chance to meet the
ladies who create the paper jewels with a short biography and
photograph where the ladies can share their stories and situation
allowing the shopper to see a person, a face. Not only does this
allow the shoppers to see to whom their money is going to, they
have the added bonus of knowing they are actually helping make
some of the world’s biggest problems that bit smaller.
We get a chance throughout the day to talk to the ladies and
suddenly I see why Malcolm has worked through unearthly hours
building the website among other things to see
GrassRootsUganda.com happen. Zaina Nalubanga is the petite
22-year-old mother of three beautiful girls. After leaving primary
school at P7 (?) she has been a housewife, keeping up the usual
domestic chores of digging the land, keeping the home and nursing
the children. She tells us her husband works as a bodaboda
(define) rider and earns around $US1.50 per day for his work,
which can barely cover all their needs from prevention against
Malaria to medical care needed to get her hernia seen too. She
looks around us or at the ground as she tells us, “I would use
the money to pay the school fees for my children to go to
school…with this I could buy clothes and milk.” And when asked
what making these beads means to her she smiles shyly, holding her
youngest on her hip and says, “It makes me happy and gives me
hope that I will improve myself.”
Jane Mbabazi’s story is riddled with the same cultural
limitations found with Zaina and Ugandan women all over. Having
moved to the village after her husband chased her away when she
was five months pregnant she now looks after her mother, a heart
patient at Mulago Heart Institute. She smiles even as she tells us
that she has lost everything; her business, her home and her
traditional African marriage and becomes amazingly quiet when we
ask her what her personal wish would be if she could do or change
anything about life in Buvunya, a question it seems that most of
the women were not used to being asked. “I would open shops to
sell childrens’ wear,” she begins, “It would make me proud
if someone bought the necklaces, it cures the boredom and we get
paid.” And before long she is walking back to Vincent’s house
to continue rolling more beads.
It’s varnishing time the next morning and Rose is back from
Jinja, holding Zaina’s bright eyed but weepy baby girl on the
table top. There are babies everywhere this morning strapped to
backs, clinging to skirts, crawling over the floor tearfully
attracting their mum’s attention. The delight as the beads hang
on the washing line out back to dry in the sun is real and
contagious. The ladies’ excitement that they are now part of a
craft group, a jewellery-making group that is going see their
beads sent to the distant West and worn by lots of Mzungus
(define!) is reason enough to be proud. And not forgetting there
is now a new sense of hope. Hope for the family to have a little
more money, for school fees to be paid or maybe even open that
shop one day.
Sometime that afternoon when we are sitting watching the ladies
smile as they make another delicately wrapped rainbow bead,
Malcolm says quietly, “It’s finally happening.” And as they
collect the beads into small piles of achievement it’s easy to
see that something special is happening down in the village.
For more information please go to:
www.grassrootsuganda.com
email info@grassrootsuganda.com
Erina Khanakwa © copyright 2006 |
