A CBO is born!

after a very successful (and touching) first round of fundraising, Nellie, Mac (Nellie's husband), Angela (another board member) and i went to Kasitu to inform the community about the planned activities. Nellie had already informed the traditional authority, but we needed to meet with the community and select the individuals involved in the sewing project.


after a pleasant (but long) 4 hour drive to kasitu, we arrived to, well, no one. this shouldn't be surprising to anyone, certainly not me. this is africa, and africa time was in full affect. after an hour of people drifting in, we started the meeting with about 70 people in attendance. Nellie led the meeting informing about the plans for the foundation in general and the sewing project in particular.

the whole experience was trasnlated for me, and from what i could gather, people are very excited about the project! infact, we had more people interested to join the sewing project than we thought would be managable, so we went through a fascinating community consensus process and narrowed it down to eight people - four men, four women, and a representation from the four villages in the TA. these eight people will take basic sewing courses from the local tailor for the next three weeks so that they will be ready for Ali when she arrives.



i am so pleased at how this project is progressing! and thankful for the overwhleming support. i will continue to keep you posted!