Our seamstress in training program provides teen girls with a way to move from poverty to prosperity. On June 13, we honor an invention that provides a living for so many.
Quick History
An English man, Thomas Saint designed the first sewing machine of its kind in 1790, and 61 years later Isaac Singer patented the first version of the modern day sewing machine featuring a foot pedal and the up-and-down needle, and created a economic way to bring them into the home. If you want to see a fascinating timeline on the history, click here.
Our Program
These days, a sewing and tailoring career in Uganda is in demand, and a vocation we teach at St. Elizabeth’s Girls Academy. The girls learn how to operate a sewing machine, how to make straight lines without and with a ruler, and how to cut different cloth fabrics. They then graduate to the tailoring part of the training and start creating tops, skirts and dresses. Some of the machines they use are a Singer foot pedal because electric is unreliable.
Girls don’t always get a chance to complete school because of lack of funds to pay for an education. Uganda has no government sponsored free schooling like other countries. Everyone must pay to get an education there. So, with a sewing machine and vocation training we provide for free, one can pay the bills and live a simple life. Armed with a needle and thread, girls in our program receive a hand up on their path to providing for themselves.
Check out the video Father Mugagga took this past February. The girls were taking exams to graduate or move onto the next level in their education. When girls leave our care with this skill they become tailors and sewists. More importantly, they have acquired a skill that provides hope.
You can help me stitch a future for our girls. $240 a year supports one girl’s dream to become self-sufficient in a career tailor-made for her.
Stitching together hope,
Cristen Lyn
