By Andrea Stachnik | Founder and Executive Director
A couple months ago we appealed to all of Unmarked Streets supporters to help to grow our new Sewing and Quilting Program. We truly believe that this could make all the difference to Unmarked Streets - by improving our line of products we make our program more sustainable, and are able to teach the women new skills that they will be able to use the rest of their lives.
Our program participants have never been so fired up - we have opened up the office for more hours by popular demand from the women in the program. One of the women who has really livened up since we started the sewing program is named Doña Lucy.
Doña Lucy lost one of her sons many years ago due to a stray bullet. She lives in a dangerous neighborhood where she constantly fears she will lose another one of her children. Ever since that day, she has been frightened to leave the house or take public transportation. For years she has spent her days at home, not seeing many people outside of her immediate family. Coming to Unmarked Streets, alongside her daughter Norma, was just the push she needed to get out of the house and start investing in herself.
She is still nervous, but knowing she is coming to a safe place like Unmarked Streets makes her feel strong enough to want to leave her house, walk for half a mile and take two buses to get to our offices. She had thought that at her age she had missed her chance to learn new skills - but she has really thrived on the sewing machines. She is motivated to make the most of her time at Unmarked Streets, and she started saving the money she earns at UMS to buy a sewing machine of her own. Her work in the sewing program has inspired her to take another huge step - finally learning how to read. She grew up on the streets and had to work to feed herself - she never got the opportunity to go to school. But now she is learning to read, alongside her granddaughter Daniela, and proving that it's never too late to believe in yourself and get a fresh start.
In a recent conversation we had with her she said: - “If it wasn’t for Unmarked Streets, I would have never thought that I could create better life for myself, not to mention learning how to read”. Your generous donations are going directly to pay Doña Lucy for her work making purses for Unmarked Streets. By investing in her, you are giving her a whole new lease on life - she believes in herself and can envision a future where she is strong, independent, and thriving. Not only that, Doña Lucy is also setting an example for her granddaugher Daniela, and proving to Daniela that she can grow up to be anything she wants to be.
So far, the girls have earned a total of $800 from the program. We haven't reached our target yet of $100 a month for each of the participants, but we are confident that we will get there soon now that each of them has a unique design that they have mastered. Keep an eye on this space, as well as our Facebook page, for more info on how the women are progressing!
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
