ISP successes!

I’m so excited I don’t even know where to begin!  I could not ask for a better two days, and I’m pretty sure I have some more like this to look forward to.  I ended up meeting with Simprosa last week and everything has been changing so positively since then.  She is one of the most inspirational women I have ever met in my life and am so energized by her work.  Although I haven’t gained her full story yet, I can share that after living as a refugee in Kenya for about 10 years, escaping from the Lord’s Resistance Army here in Gulu, she was recruited by Wototo (an evangelical organization) to help women returning from the bush.  I won’t get too much into her story now because I can’t yet give it justice for how amazing it is, but basically success in one organization after another has brought her to founding her own organization because she realized that these big ones are too impersonal and turn away too many girls.  She knows she can do more.

Simprosa under the tree where she sells every day!

So on Friday Simon and I met up with her in her tiny office tucked away in a back street in Cerileno, on the opposite side of town as I live.  And when I say tiny, I mean 4 women (and 2 babies) are crammed into a 10x12’ office space.  I honestly don’t know how they make it.  But basically she was more than happy to invite me to come in to learn the following week from her and the 3 girls who work there.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, and so Sunday night I scribbled some questions just incase all that the next day turned into was a question/answer session for an hour or so.  It definitely turned out to be anything but.  I showed up around 10 and we got to chatting.  The questions were answered before I could ask them, as Simprosa is a very open woman.  She can just talk for such time and keep your attention.  She told me how she started, how she was going to be a teacher, and how God had other plans for her.  Since she has started Amani Uganda (Kiswahili for “peace”), she has been faced with many challenges but also has had some amazing successes.  She says how the generosity of people has really come out, as many have donated machines and even the office space is borrowed from a family friend.  It is small, as she expressed to me today, and she is looking for a bigger space, but one challenge leads to another.  Right now she only has enough machines for 3 girls, and therefore can only generate enough profit to pay them, and therefore not purchase any more equipment to be able to take on more girls, but even if she got the equipment, where could she fit it.  You see? It’s a never ending cycle.  And one of the hardest challenges is selling her crafts.

I first met Simprosa outside of Sankofa Café in Senior Quarters.  It’s a muzungu hang-out to say the least.  She sells her things under a tree just outside the front entrance.  I recently found out from her that she originally had asked the muzungu owner if she could sell her goods within, and after her being persistent and him ignoring her, she found out some time later that he didn’t want her there.  So, distraught she walked outside, worried that she would be carrying her things from street corner to street corner forever, and ran into the shopkeeper just outside.  “No problem,” she told her, “You can sell your things under this tree.”  And so there she is.  She is so thankful that these things work for her.

   

So anyway, back to my first day.  We were hanging out, chatting.  I was taking notes on some background information, etc. when Simprosa asked me if I wanted to here the girl’s testimonies.  I wasn’t expecting this at all, especially because my limited Acholi put a barrier on our relationship building, but I was also excited by the idea.  It took them a while to agree, but Simprosa encouraged them, telling them that the more they express themselves, the better they will feel.

Because they have asked me not to share, I will tell you that from the two testimonies I heard, both were abducted from their homes in Koc Goma, both were abducted at night, and both were given as wives and had children in the bush.  The few details they gave were horrific and I had one of those moments where I asked myself, “What the heck am I doing here?” and thinking, “This is not my place.”  How am I qualified to sit there and listen to these stories, and want to cry for these girls, when they are still going on living their lives, telling their stories to a complete stranger.  I can’t imagine what they went through.  But after I thanked them for sharing with me, it was beautiful to hear “apwoyo matek” from them, and Simprosa translating that they are so grateful that I will listen to them, that it means so much.

 

I’m pretty sure in those first 2 hours I had accomplished more of what I wanted to than I have in total at VISO.  It’s unfortunate that it has to be that way, but it also motivates me all the more.

After, Simprosa and I went to pick some fabric downtown.  She took me to this shop, the size of her shop, with wall-to-wall fabric.  Literally.  I wish I could take a picture.  You take your shoes off at the door and climb over piles, dig through, scramble up shelves, it’s crazy!  And Simprosa just confidently goes it, grabs six 12-yard pieces, pays her money and walks out.  I carried them for her (one of the biggest work-outs I’ve gotten here) and the plastic bag snapped after about only 7 minutes.  She said she gets this much after every 2 weeks, and I believe it, those girls are determined and really get excited about their work.  The problem, Simprosa says, is getting people to buy.

I realize I’m rambling at this point, but I’m just so excited about this!  After we got back and had some tea, I went and sat with her under the tree outside Sankofa and we sewed bird ornaments.  More like I tried to sew one and messed it up, but it was cool to just hang out with her.  And today, when I showed up at the office, and she wasn’t yet there, the girls joked as they put me to work cutting, “Much easier than stitch.”  Simprosa must have told them about the previous afternoon….

So I got to cut with them for a while, then Simprosa and I went back to the tree and took pictures of all the items.  We are going to make fliers to put up around town to attract more people to come out to check her things.  I’m excited and hope it will work.  ALSO if ya’ll are interested in any of the items in the pictures, the profits go to a really good cause helping formerly abducted women who are supporting not only their selves and their children, but other people’s children as well.  Contact me and I’ll bring something back for ya, they make great Christmas presents!!!

Other than filling my time hanging out with this amazing woman, I’m checking out other women’s empowerment related organizations in the area.  Just this afternoon I went to Mend, an Invisible Children sponsored organization.  I was skeptical, but getting a tour of the place changed my mind.  There is a great energy there and the products are excellently made.  And it’s also clear that it really does benefit the women.  I won’t get into the criticism because I’m in too positive a mood right now, but they definitely do have some doubtful aspects.  It’s cool to see IC doing something productive though.

Okay, that’s all for now I guess!