Ever hopeful that the Kenya Quilt Guild will one day be a branch of a larger East African Quilt Guild, I am always on the lookout for needleworkers in East Africa. Recently I received an email from Allen Nansubuga in Uganda, telling me about a crochet project she is developing. Here is her description, and I hope you will enjoy seeing her photos:
Crochet4Life started out in February 2009 as an original Uganda commercial initiative to sell hand-made crochet products on-line and also off-line to the local market.
All products are made by a village crochet group and have a label describing the rich crochet tradition. The enterprise is run by women and generates income by excellent products and services and good management.
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- Yvonne Welzen and Allen Nansubuga working with Crochet4Life in Uganda
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- Sukie Baby Blanket
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- Crocheted Headband, Wristband and Handbag
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- Crocheted flower headbands
The founder, Allen Nansubuga, hopes that Crochet4Life will inspire, mobilize and unite women who have existing crochet knowledge/skills to maximize knowledge and skills. Women could be mobilized into village crochet groups.
In order to help women forward, Crochet4Life will create training opportunities for women to read and write, learn the crochet language (to be able to read crochet patterns) so they can maximize resources and crochet various items. When the women learn to read and write, they will not only be empowered for crocheting but also they will be empowered to help their children with homework from school.
Furthermore Crochet4Life intends to mobilize these crochet groups to spin their own yarn from the abundantly available cotton in Uganda, dye it, use some to crochet and sell off the rest. This takes us into environment conservation.
In short, Allen’s dream is to lift by crochet entire Ugandan villages out of poverty, while conserving the environment and each woman in the village crochet group will buy and own land within 2-3 years of saving from crochets. The first village where the initiative is being made a reality is Kyaliwajjala village in Namugongo.
Crochet4Life wants to be a trendsetter, not a follower. All designs are originals. Some women in the group much as they are illiterate, are highly innovative / creative when given a chance they come up with unique designs.
Contact Crochet4Life in Uganda through me; use the Contact Form to let me know of your interest and I will forward your email to Allen Nansubuga.
Filed under People, Women
Tagged as africa, Women
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