Seven women in the group work part-time outside the home. They sell tomatoes, bring water to cement mixers, and make and sell traditional lamps that burn petrol. One works for Women for Women International, teaching basket making, and tells us that her husband insists on managing the money she earns.
Beatrice tells the women that they hold the future generation in their hearts and homes and they must teach them that boys and girls are equal. “How many of you have your daughters do your sons’ laundry? Boys can do the washing too,” she chides. She closes the session with, “You have a value. Your work has value. Your children need to understand this. You need to teach them and show them through your actions and your belief in yourself. You have value.”
After the class, we attend the graduation from the program of nineteen women. We are told that twenty started, but one has died in the course of the yearlong program. We are given no further details about this loss. The women are resplendent once more in their traditional dress, and there is more singing and dancing and the handing out of diplomas. These women have completed both rights and education courses, like the class I attended, and have learned a skill that will help them support themselves. Their vocational training might have been basket making, bead and jewelry making, or knitting. Women for Women International is also launching an agribusiness center where women will learn sustainable and organic farming so that they may grow their own produce and sell the crops.
As the women give testimony to the changes in their lives, the repeated themes are increased self-confidence, a better awareness of their rights and their value, and a better economic situation for themselves, which allows them to regularly feed and educate their children. One program graduate stands up and shows us a quilt she has learned to make through the program. The colors are as bright as what our group wants her future to be and we can’t believe how beautiful it is. After the graduation ceremony, when we are eating lunch together, I find Musonera. She translates for me, and helps me buy the quilt.
If you would like to learn more about how to help a sister who has experienced the trauma of war, please log on to the Web site where, for as little as twenty-seven dollars a month, you can help a woman survivor of war rebuild her life.
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