Give Dignity to Women and Young Girls in Zambia

The following is an e-postcard from Kai Iizuka, a GlobalGiving Representative in Zambia.

I was shown around the Factory Room where many of the clothes, bags, female sanitary pads and various other textile items are handmade by Chikumbuso community members. Rose, the assistant teacher, told me how the workers are first taught in the adjacent room for the first year on how to use sewing machines and learn the basics of tailoring. They then move on to the Factory Room where they are able to create handbags, laptop cases, dresses and even suits to sell and make a living for themselves.

Anderson was the first male student to graduate from the class and told me that he had been working at Chikumbuso for four years now. At this point, he can make a whole suit from scratch according to his friend Mike. Mike had only recently graduated from the tailoring school and explained how he was working here to be able to make enough money to go back to school. As he was fixing up the hem of a suit trouser, we discussed how cool it would be to be able to make your own suit, and he told me how he was glad that he was learning a skill that would later on prove to be very useful and not only for making a living, but everyday applications as well. I wish him all the best and hope he manages to attain the higher level education he is working for.