A Visit to a Seamstress' Home

This morning after we picked up Janet, she took us to the home and workshop of a woman named Glory. Glory is a seamstress that works for Janet to sew her batik fabrics into beautiful skirts, bags and other items to be sold in Janet's store in Moshi.

Glory at one time had her sewing room set up in main room of her home, but after receiving a "micro-loan" from the Asante Network she was able to use the loan money to build a separate sewing studio next to her home. She has room in the studio for several sewing machines and she teaches four students to sew and eventually be able to support themselves with this skill.

Glory's family grows several banana trees and coffee plants, plus they own a small group of farm animals to help them produce food for the family and have items to sell at the market. Her superior sewing skills along with the micro-loan from Asante have helped this family, especially Glory to be productive in many ways while earning a fare wage for her work.

While we were at Glory's studio this morning she took measurements to make Jan an outfit from the traditional Tanzania Katenge cloth (similar to the outfit Janet is wearing). Later we had to go to the market (that we had passed earlier) so Jan could pick out fabric and give to Glory to cut and sew - she is supposed to have the outfit done for Jan tomorrow afternoon.