Sewing Hope

Serving slum dwellers in Nairobi, Kenya provides many opportunities for ministry. There are multiple ways to meet the many needs we encounter every day. However, the easiest solution is not always the best one.

It would be easy to just distribute food, money, and clothing, to help people in need, but those things only address the symptoms of poverty and eventually lead to dependency. Providing a temporary ‘fix’ does nothing to address the root issue of poverty.

In our efforts to address the poverty, education, and unemployment in our community, we partnered with a local church to start a pre-school. The pre-school has grown from one classroom to a full-fledged kindergarten for ages 3, 4, and 5. This not only provides education for needy children but also provides employment for teachers.

A newer ministry is a sewing program that has just started with five students. The church recruited the students, is paying the tutor/teacher, and also added three sewing machines. Our ministry provided a well-equipped workshop at the center and also dual electric/manual sewing machines. A few years ago, another ministry gave us the sewing machines and it’s so exciting to finally see them put to good use!   

The sewing program will run for nine months after which the students will take a government trade test upon graduation and if successful, the students will be issued with a trade certificate.  The skills learned will hopefully provide them an opportunity to either be employable or become self-employed.

We are excited to see the fruits of this partnership because it is directly impacting the lives of children in the preschool and the young adults in the sewing program.

As an old Chinese proverb says.  “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day—if you teach him to fish, you feed him for many days.”  Or in our case, “If you give a woman a dress, you clothe her for a day --- If you teach her to sew, you clothe her (and her family) for life.” ….. Or something like that… You get the picture.

Francis and Kimberly serve with GlobalGrace in Nairobi, Kenya