A Space for Community
My first trip back to Rwanda after originally leaving was in 2021. I met so many women and young children while there. The living conditions of the women and the children in the community broke my heart. There was so much poverty and very little if any support for these women. While I knew I was just one person, I had a strong urge to do something with the limited resources that I had.
During that stay in 2021, I met with a group of women, about forty-five in total, who were basket weavers, in the style that I too had been taught to weave. We spent time together weaving and talking about their life circumstances.
Most of the women had never been to school, many were unable to read. Others were young mothers and did not know how to feed their babies and take care of them properly.
Still, others who had never known anything other than extreme poverty, living on the streets at times, did not know how to take care of themselves. They did not wash themselves and their clothes regularly.
I saw that while there were many needs for most, there was also wisdom within the group that could be shared … if they had a space to come together. I looked around for a house that was available to rent and had the good fortune of finding one where these women could come together.
This is a safe place where the women can come together and share their stories with each other, support each other, and teach each other. The women come together regularly… some to prepare the grasses used for making the baskets, others weaving baskets and others making soap.
Mothers with experience are helping young mothers learn how to care for their babies… preparing proper food, and caring for the babies hygeine.
Through companionship, women share tips on how to take care of their own hygiene.
I found a tutor who comes to the house twice a week to teach reading to a few of the women. We found a blackboard and chalk for the lessons.
The women talk with each other and share what they can do and what they would like to do.
I have encouraged them to save a small amount of the money that they make from selling their soaps and baskets so they can then put their money together and learn to take care of themselves. How they could save money to pay for health care…. saving a little over time can help them get there. In the short term, this may seem to some impossible as they need the money to pay for food.
When I visited this group of women again this past May, I brought some tee shirts and other small gifts for the women and the children. Again we spent time together making baskets and talking.
We also had a good time dancing and laughing together. While the extreme poverty is still very much there, there is also laughter, joy, dance, and companionship.
Women caring for and supporting other women.
