Skills Training for Vulnerable Women
HOLISTIC HEALING: GRACE’S STORY
“I have hope that whatever new skills I gain will impact my life greatly. I hope to start a tailoring business after I graduate which would be a huge blessing to me and my family.”
Grace Yesaya is already a widow at age 39. She has also been left to care for her brother’s four children, because he and his wife have both died. Without the support of a husband, and the heavy responsibility of so many children to care for, Grace struggled through life alone. But at the start of 2017, she got a life-changing opportunity and became one of 22 new recruits in African Enterprise’s Malawi’s Vulnerable Women program, a six month course in tailoring. “Coming here is a great opportunity for me because it is going to open new doors for me and the children that rely on me.” she said. “I have hope that whatever new skills I gain will impact my life greatly. I hope to start a tailoring business after I graduate which would be a huge blessing to me and my family.”
Many of the women on the course were identified by AE’s partners and churches – all come from vulnerable backgrounds and are in desperate need of assistance. Through AE, they learn a variety of skills, including how to identify the best fabrics, how to match colours, sew zips and join pieces of cloth into garments. Grace excitedly listed all the things she has learned so far. “From the day I joined this school, I and my friends have managed to learn all the parts of a sewing machine, how to run the machine, how to attach a zip on a cloth and many other things,” she said.
“AS A CLASS, WE HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO SHARE OUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AND IDEAS AMONG OURSELVES AND ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER IN THE THINGS WHICH WE HAVE GONE THROUGH BEFORE
WE CAME HERE.”
With your help, we can reach more souls for Christ.
But this course is so much more than a set of sewing lessons; it is an experience that encompasses all of life, creating a time and place for women from difficult backgrounds to be healed, transformed and empowered. “As a class, we have the privilege to share our personal experiences and ideas among ourselves and encourage one another in the things which we have gone through before we came here.”
A great amount of work goes into this multifaceted program. Supplies are purchased by the sewing school matron, and all students get involved in the daily cleaning of the school building – a task which fosters a love for the environment in which they learn. There are devotions each morning and evening, and breakfast, lunch and dinner are provided. The women spend all their time together and form deep bonds through their learning, sharing and healing. Many of them receive personal counselling and guidance for individual problems. They receive instruction on caring for their bodies and their homes, form new friendships, gain sewing skills and, most importantly, get the opportunity to meet the God who cares about them.
“My preaching has been greatly transformed,” he said. “I am able to preach, interpret and integrate the scriptures within context and I’m sure this is helping our church to grow more founded in the Word of God.”
Daniel Otieno was already a pastor when he joined AE Kenya’s training program. He was the deputy chairman of the Pastor’s Fellowship in his town – already a well-respected Christian leader. However, he hadn’t had the opportunity to study theology; until AE offered local Kenyan pastors the chance to join the PTC course, asking them to pay only a $10 joining fee.
In June 2017 year, Daniel got to put his training to extra use at AE Kenya’s mission to Malindi, his own town. He and his fellow students were all involved in the mission and one of the most enthusiastic participants was female pastor, Franciscah Kibira.
“I was very committed during the Malindi mission. There is no way I could miss it!” she said.
She organised people in her church to give financially to the mission, to offer accommodation to over 40 mission evangelists, and had 30 additional church members helping out throughout the mission week. “I had attended some Malindi Mission planning meetings before the PTC, but I only understood the whole picture of the mission during the PTC training, she said. “After the Mission, I went with the AE-Kenya team to evangelise at the Kampala Mission in Uganda!”
Before this, Franciscah had received no theological or biblical training. She had enthusiasm and commitment, but lacked depth of understanding. So at each class, she lapped up the teaching. “The clear discussions about the Bible and the unfolding themes through the Scripture helped me see the Bible in a different perspective,” she said. “The theme of Christ unfolding from the Old Testament to the New Testament made me see the Bible as one.” “It’s like PTC opens your eyes to see the Scriptures as they are, not as the way we want to see them. It’s a common thing to see the Bible being misinterpreted in Kenya by many preachers, but PTC stops this.” It has given her and Daniel more confidence in their ministry. “I recently had an opportunity to go and preach the word of God in South Africa,” said Daniel.
“The knowledge and the material that I received during the course, helped me with all my preparations. I felt I was more effective and delivering the word of God more appropriately. PTC is now opening new doors for me.” “I remain thankful to AE for giving us an opportunity to study the word of God. In PTC, the training is not teacher-centred but student-centred; the discussion groups, the time the students have with the material before the actual training, makes PTC unique.”
“Thank you to the facilitators who sacrificially devote their time and resources to come and equip us, the Kenyan church! Thank you too AE for offering this training without cost. The little we pay is nothing compared to the total cost of this training. I am sure there are individuals and partners who give these funds to AE. Thank you for your generous giving.”
When Beatrice was a teenager she was struck by a strange illness that left her weak and unable to function. Living on a small farm on the border of Kenya and Tanzania, her parents didn’t know what to do: they took her to clinics and hospitals but no one could make a clear diagnosis. Drained of money that her father made from farming, there was little left for basic necessities let alone school fees, and Beatrice was often too sick to leave the house anyway. It wasn’t long before she dropped out of school entirely
Beatrice says: “My life was miserable – I kept thinking about my future and got more and more depressed”.
With an incomplete education, a background of poverty, and no formal training or job experience, Beatrice questioned what she had to offer. Her answer came some years later when she was introduced to African Enterprise’s Mathare Women’s Project. It was the chance of a lifetime.
After just two months on the program, her mind has been transformed.
“I am learning dressmaking, design, customer relations and marketing!” she says excitedly. “I hope to use these skills to start a small dressmaking business and earn a living to improve my life and that of my family”.
“Even more, through the Mathare Women’s Project, I have come to understand that despite my dropping out of school, God has gifted me with potential and talents and through the skills I am learning, I can improve not only my own life but also my children’s”.
“The Project has taught me that as Christians, we are called and expected by Christ to be his witnesses in the world” she says. “This has completely transformed my understanding about Christian ministry and I am now actively involved in evangelism and discipling other women in our church”.
AE has given her a new life and a deeper understanding of her faith.
“I am grateful to God for the AE Mathare Women’s Project, for the way it is transforming my life and giving me new meaning,” Beatrice says, “Thank you”.
We are happy to report that the project fulfilled its objectives for the year; with the main objective being to provide guidance and education to young children on HIV and AIDS. This project empowers church leaders, teachers and student peer leaders who in return educate the school children on the subject of HIV and AIDS. The participatory nature of this program involves the children in designing some of the edutainment activities which create ownership and lasting impact hence the sustainability of this project.
The following activities were performed:
- Project monitoring visit
- Religious leaders training
- Peer leaders training
- Sports gear support
- Primary school teachers meetings and training
SPORTS GEAR SUPPORT
“The young children are supportive and compassionate towards orphans living with HIV and AIDS. The project training has assisted us increase knowledge on HIV and AIDS and nullify negative myths about the epidemic”. (Salome Masanja, Teacher, Busweru Primary School)
Primary school head teachers of Ilemela Municipal Council with project staff after receiving footballs and netballs for their schools.
“The project support through provision of sports gear, footballs and netballs, has assisted in reduction of stigma and discrimination among young children. Playing together eliminates social inequalities and erodes out the discrimination among young children”. (Chaha Sabai, Head Teacher, Nyere Primary School)
AEE Tanzania is indeed grateful to AE Australia and all her partners for supporting this project. The project reached 14,368 young children directly in schools and over 10,000 people indirectly through school competitions and community outreach gatherings. The program has transformed the lives of young children as well as adults. Exposure to the right information on the spread of HIV and AIDS has helped reduce the epidemic in Mwanza, Tanzania. The rate of dropping out of school through child pregnancies has reduced by 90%. This is a project that can easily be replicated across the country with availability of funding.
This month’s election in Sierra Leone was the first time a country has used Blockchain technology in a national election.
In a world first, Swiss company, Agora provided the service to Sierra Leone’s highly populated Western District, which includes the nation’s capital, Freetown.
Blockchain has developed with the rise of Cryptocurrency. It is essentially a digital ledger that is a decentralised recording of data. Information is stored across many computers which makes it practically impossible to modify the data.
In other words, Agora has developed a voting system for Sierra Leone that dramatically reduces the chances of an election being rigged.
Agora’s COO Jaron Lukasiewicz told Coindesk that “A country like Sierra Leone can ultimately minimise a lot of the fall-out of a highly contentious election by using software like this.”
This is an exciting development for the small West African nation who have just had their second unsupervised election since the end of their civil war in 2002. We thank God the election process has also been very peaceful so far.
This could also be a positive development for the future of politics in Africa and has the potential to limit a party’s autocratic reign in power.
2018 will see Zimbabwe have a national election after the 37-year rule of Robert Mugabe came to an end last year.
Burundi are also about to go to a referendum to decide whether to increase presidential terms from five to seven years, with a maximum of two terms in office. This could mean that President Pierre Nkurunziza could run the country until 2034.
African Enterprise Australia reported earlier this month about the great political instability that rocked several African nations in the month of February.
We are hopeful that developments such as Blockchain could work as a tool to support peaceful democratic processes in many African nations.
Preparations are well underway for AE’s first mission of 2018, which will operate in the Rwandan capital city of Kigali.
The ‘Kigali, West Mission for Jesus 2018’ will run from the 10th to the 17th of June, and will focus on the Nyarugenge District, which is one of the three major areas in Kigali.
Our team in Rwanda are working to partner with 50 local churches in the targeted area and are aiming to reach over 56,000 people with the good news of Christ.
The team’s preparations include training around 520 people from local churches with basic evangelism skills, in order to see as many people as possible come to know Jesus. The team are hoping to see approximately 7,000 conversions to Christ through your prayers and support.
Nyarugenge is in the Western part of the city and is home to most of the city’s government and financial institutions.
While many of the country’s wealthiest business people live in this region, there is large income disparity between the rich and the poor. A large exodus from rural areas has resulted in the district having the highest population density in the country, which has also led to widespread unemployment among younger people.
Nyarugenge is also home to the Islamic Cultural Centre. Recently, young people have been converting to Islam in great numbers, which further presses the need for evangelism in the area.
The region also has the University of Rwanda and as well as a campus of Mount Kenya University. There is a high potential for outreach amongst the region’s large student population.
Large evangelistic meetings have already been planned for the Kigali city centre, large colleges such as the Kigali Health Institute, and even some of the local prisons.
The prostitution trade is also quite common in the area, but the team are working on strategies with local churches to effectively minister to people in this industry. The team are looking to provide training in areas such as tailoring and catering so people in the trade can eventually run their own businesses. Food supplies will also be provided to households in desperate need of support.
There’s still a great deal of work to be done before the mission launches in June, but we’re excited to see how the Gospel will transform the local community.
Please keep the AE team in Rwanda and the local churches in Nyarugenge in your prayers over the coming months.
