Cut the Sisal. Strip the leaf down the middle. Then scrape the chlorophyll filled exterior with a blunt knife. Dye each of the fibers before wrapping a sweet grass core with a thousand stitches.
Produced & Directed by:
Parker Snyder
Music & Photography by:
Kasia Romanska
Translation by: Gabriel Gahima
Videography by:
Marcin Jaroszewicz
Narrative by: Tupochele Mtila
In Support: Lori & Andy Stuart
Welcome to the life of a rural woman enrolled in the Gitarama Basket Weavers Association. With each basket you sell, you'll save a dollar and with each dollar saved, you're one step closer to sending your child to school.
What's life like without the Association? More than likely, you'll wake each day before the sun to turn the earth with a metal hoe. But you'll earn no income and what food you're able to grow you'll feed to your family. You'll barter the excess for salt, soap and oil.
For the first time in their lives, women trained by the Gahaya Links earn an income. Joy Ndungutse and her sister Janet returned from exile in Uganda to help the rural women of their home country Rwanda. They know the life well. Their own mother was a rural farmer like many of the women they serve.
For Promoting Savings among the associations by tasking them to create a savings scheme, Janet Ndungutse has been named a Caring Habits Social Mentor . Like the Yellow Weaver birds of Africa, the women are learning to construct a basket of savings, safe from the ruin of men.
Tags: weaving 80percentangel rwanda caring habits peace basket paris hilton visits
