WHY SEWING?

Development projects should be closely rooted in the society and lifestyle of the people living there, stemming from localized and culturally relevant interests. Rural girls and women receive minimal privilege in rural communities and face issues when they try to leave their homes to go work. But when trained by Barefoot College Zanzibar, they’re assured to receive effective skills in sewing, bolstering opportunities to use their skills and earn money so that they can thrive and better support their families.

SEWING LIVELIHOOD IN ZANZIBAR

This project started in 2015. As part of the Enriche Sewing Program, we select, train and equip women from rural communities of Zanzibar who will benefit the most from a sewing livelihood. Women and girls are trained at the center to become professional sewers. Those who were selected at the beginning became master trainers, helping to train additional women as the team continues to grow. The participants of this program are all rural women. The sewing activities take place at our Kinyasini training center, and the women come from the nearby villages to be trained. Our work involves building a mechanism for generating continual income for rural women. Our job is to provide guidance in terms of sewing skills and business acumen.

The program itself targets women and girls to become financially-free, by providing sewing training to them. Once they become competent, it’s simple for them to open up sewing businesses and embark on sewing different outfits including shirts, dresses and the like that they can sell to various tourists coming to Zanzibar and the locals. Our sewing team provides regular support visits to trained sewers in their villages, at relevant periods over two years to ensure the proper functioning of their activity.

MASKS AGAINST COVID-19

Following the outbreak of COVID-19 with the support of the Frey Charitable Foundation and other partners on the ground (Co-funding UN Women, Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar), our local sewing department was able to produce more than 100, 000 masks. Apart from distributing the masks to more than 45, 000 beneficiaries, fliers were also distributed with instructions on how to use the masks, with visual support for people who can’t read.

The team has distributed masks in different elders’ houses in Zanzibar and all residences around our college in Kinyasini (Unguja) and its vicinity. Barefoot College Zanzibar has hired 20 more sewing ladies and empowers them with additional entrepreneurship and financial inclusion skills to help the current sewing team produce extra masks.

SANITARY PADS & HEALTH

The Barefoot Enriche program disseminates knowledge on menstrual and reproductive health and other aspects of women’s health. We address issues on sexual and reproductive health and host production and information workshops about washable sanitary napkins. We partner with organizations that help to facilitate the distribution of washable sanitary towels. We provide quality services to meet women and girls’ social, health, educational and developmental needs through leadership, empowerment and strategic collaboration.

We believe that addressing underlying structural and social barriers to Women’s Empowerment can only be achieved using a holistic participatory approach. Enriche focuses on eight building blocks that help to ensure the overall health of women and girls: Women’s Health, Financial Inclusion, Human Rights and Civil Society, Micro-enterprise, Livelihood Skills, Self-awareness, Digital Literacy and Environmental Stewardship.

MADE WITH LOVE

You can make a difference! Support our women by investing in their handmade, locally-produced goods for your retail business. Our women have plenty of products available and are capable of crafting anything including clothes, uniforms, beekeeping suits, masks and bags on demand. Send us your requests!

We focus on providing quality processing, packaging and marketing of our products, to make sure both women and B.Barefoot Honey receive a fair value for their work. The different locations of apiaries offer a great range of honey varieties: mango, mangrove, clove, coral or fruit flower blends honey.

Please contact us at zanzibar@barefootcollege.org with any inquiries