WAG Malawi - PROJECTS

Kachere Crafts- recycle and reuse to create incomes

Creating income for vulnerable ladies living close to Thuma Forest Reserve

Ethel

Women in particular are vulnerable with poor education and large families who depend on them. With little or no chance of earning any hard cash these ladies struggle to buy some of the basic essentials such as soap and salt, and in most cases, they cannot afford to send their children to school, provide uniforms, school books and/or pens. It is every mothers dream that their child is educated and has a chance of a better life.

The idea

To set up small scale, sustainable income for individual woman living close to the reserve.

Aims

To provide some form of income opportunity to local ladies
To support all participants with ongoing training
To reduce the reliance of forest’s produce through indicatives like this

The project

Edes

Whenever starting a new project it is vital that we discuss the idea and implementation of it with our local leaders. The traditional procedure to do this can be very long, and it is most important that whatever we do must be seen to be fair. One must avoid jealousies and causing problems between communities. Five Group Village Head (GVH) men were approached with the original idea of starting a small sewing club. They in turn asked their ladies who would be interested to do this.

One lady from each GVH area was chosen and trained how to sew. Ideas of what to sew and with what material were discussed and designed. At the beginning, we experienced many quality issues, especially when a new design was introduced. Also, simple things such as dirty hands, making the material looking very grubby needed to be addressed. Or, one lady has problems with her vision, however, her friends assist her with threading the needle and so forth.

The sewing club

Hilda

In February 2016 Wildlife Action Group started a sewing club for ladies living along the eastern boundary of Thuma Forest Reserve as an alternative income generating activity. Claudia, a volunteer from Switzerland kick started this project, and showed the ladies how to sew and make patterns.

They are using wire from illegal snares, which the scouts have confiscated in the forest and local fabric remnants to create colourful clingers, cute elephant key rings, and gorgeous snare angles. It started and still happens on a matt beside our main gate under a large shady tree.