News

During a recent visit, we met with the women participating in the skills training project at Dzaleka Refugee Camp to better understand how the project is progressing and the impact they feel it will have in their lives. We met with 26 women who are participating in the project which is training them in tailoring, knitting and batik crafts to help generate employment and alleviate poverty. Some of the women are widows and others are young mothers. In addition to the women staying at the camp, there are also two Malawian women benefitting from the project. Overall, the participants are very engaged, and they shared positive feedback and expressed gratitude about being involved in it. 

Before starting the skills training, most of the women were not working, and many had no idea how to support their families. Some of them have as many as nine children. One woman sometimes washed people’s clothes to get some income, others alluded to resorting to prostitution in order to have food for their families. They are glad to keep busy through the skills training project and now have hope that they can support their families with the skills they are learning. Some have already been able to do odd jobs and earn some money. In keeping them busy, the project has also reduced their worries as they are learning and busy advancing their knowledge. 

Free Training

Aside from being drawn by the opportunity to learn skills, women were also drawn to the fact that the training is free. They mentioned that others provide training in the camp but at a high fee, sometimes reaching MK60,000 (£60) or more, thus they were attracted and encouraged by this project when they saw that it was free. (William, who oversees the skills training, made a point here that he did charge a K1000 registration fee, to encourage ownership of the project and to help with costs such as machines breaking down). 

A recent challenge mentioned in the discussions is that about 680 families have been cut off from receiving monthly rations, due to insufficient funds from WFP to support all the families in the camp. This news has brought a lot of difficulty in the camp. Many are in distress, as they are left without the promise of any support, even though the rations were low.”

Some of the women in the training project are among the families that have been removed from receiving support and they shared that it was really a challenge to them. Nevertheless, they expressed gratitude for the project because it has given them hope that they have something they can do.  

Challenges

Concerning challenges faced within the project, the women said there is a need for sufficient materials for learning. They also mentioned that machines frequently break down and having few machines available can prove challenging for learning. 

In terms of future plans, William shared the intention to have stores that will employ the women when they have completed their training. The women will have access to the machines and be able to display their work and gain a potential client base. The women were happy about this. 

Women were also asked for their input on what could help the project. The women shared that they would like it if each woman could have their own machine that they could use in their homes, which could help them with making an income. 

The women say…

Zuhura, 19 

I want to express gratitude to you. Concerning the life I’m living here in Dzaleka, When Mr William convinced me to join this programme, I was very impressed.

My life changed when I was impregnated. In order to get some money to help I decided to do things which weren’t good.

I left [my home] country at a very formative age. Worse still, I was an orphan. When I reached here, I lived in a very difficult condition.

Mr William approached me [about the training], and he took me and started giving me skills. I had no idea how to progress myself, but now I have hope that my life is still going on. I now know how to sew. I’m raising my daughter.

From the little I used to get from this programme, I realized that the behaviour I had was wrong. I’ve stopped everything.

Everina, 50 (centre, grey headscarf)

First of all… I want to thank God – the one who gave you the idea of bringing this project here to Dzaleka. Some of us are widows. We are raising different children without anyone’s help. 

We started engaging in things because we had nothing to do as an occupation in order to help these children. 

Previously, we had no idea how to do anything, but now we have knowledge. This is helping us. We appreciate it and we are sure that in future things will be very good. To us, this is an income generating activity. 

I ask that God would keep on blessing you. Wherever the funds come from, may God keep on adding and refilling so that we keep on getting help like this often.

Mashunguto, 37 (in yellow) 

This project is really helping us, especially us widows. From the time we started, we feel we have gained knowledge which will help the children – they will not just be beggars in the community.

We are sure that after this project, we will have some activities to do, and this will help generate some income to buy food for the children.

Before we had the skills, we were just living without any hope. We were moving up and down, doing things in the community which were not good just to get a little money to feed the family. 

But right now, we are so thankful because our children will not sleep with hunger. 

We are so thankful and ask that you will keep helping us on other materials which we lack.