Mamafrica: Sewing Women’s Lives for a Better Future in Conflict-Ridden Congo

For many people, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) evokes images of poverty, suffering, and violence. And indeed, for the last two decades, the country has been plagued by conflict and bloody civil wars. It is currently among the poorest in the world, with 80% of its population living in poverty.

Are these minerals in our mobile phones, computers, iPods, and gaming systems fueling fighting in eastern Congo? (photo courtesy of RAISE Hope for Congo)

But the country is also incredibly rich in resources, especially in the eastern region. Home to some of the world’s rarest minerals including gold, coltan, carbonite, tin, and tungsten, the DRC supplies many of the key elements that are essential to our cell phones, laptops, and other electronic goods. One would think that a country so rich in valuable resources would not be mired in violence and the resultant poverty, but in fact, it is these very minerals that are fueling this conflict and financing African militias, who are then selling them to middlemen who supply these key ingredients to companies world-wide.

In the Congo, militias use rape as a weapon of war to destroy Congolese communities, where women are the backbone (photo courtesy of RAISE Hope for Congo)

How do these militias secure control of these mines and trading routes? By looting villages for resources, displacing communities, killing the men who were the providers of the families, and using rape as a war tactic to control and suppress the women.

Described as ‘the rape capital of the world‘ by the United Nations, more than half a million women and girls have been raped in the last ten years alone.

So, what can be done?

Here’s the problem. It is very difficult for consumers to gauge whether their purchases are funding armed groups that are committing such atrocities, given the lack of a transparent minerals supply chain (Sound familiar? Fashion isn’t the only industry that suffers from ‘transparency problems’). This is why activists like Amani Matabaro and John Prendergast from the Enough Project have made it their focus to educate citizens about the conflict, and have recently released a company ranking system as a way of empowering consumers to make more responsible purchasing decisions regarding conflict minerals.

Conflict minerals: the dirtiest side of mining (photo courtesy of greenfudge.org)

And what about the people, mostly women, who have survived the horrors of war, who are displaced and lacking the community that previously existed in their villages? This is where non-profit organizations like Mamafrica, are making a difference.

The women of Mamafrica!

Mamafrica is a woman’s sewing cooperative based in Bukavu, a city on the border of the DRC and Rwanda that has become a refuge for “internally displaced persons.” When Ashley Nemiro, an aspiring Ph.D in counseling and psychology, started her work at the Panzi hospital in May of 2012 to conduct research on the efficacy of group therapy treatment for women who had been victims of gender-based violence, she was distressed not just by the trauma these women had gone through, but by the limited opportunities there were for them to support themselves and their families. It was then that she was fortunate enough to meet Congolese activist Amani Matabaro, who founded a program (AFBEK) supported by the community development organization Action Kivu, which funds sewing cooperatives and micro-finance loans for women as a means by which they can support their small businesses and take care of their families. Through her conversations with Amani the idea for a holistic organization that would empower women by providing education, a healing arts programs, and economic opportunity, began to develop. Amani in turn introduced Ashley to Aline Malekera, a Congolese woman with a B.A. in English and a powerful voice in the community, who became a partner and was instrumental as a translator and Finance Administrator. The two formed the cooperative from three sewing collectives: Centre Ushini, AFBEK, and Action Kivu. Mamafrica now serves over ninety women in Bukavu, most of whom have fled from the violence of rural eastern Congo.

I was able to interview Ashley Nemiro in person and Aline Malekera via email about their work in the organization, and how they hope it will improve women’s lives in Bukavu:

Nadia: So Aline, could you give us more background about the conflict in the Congo and how it has affected women there?

The amazing Aline Malekera, Partner and Administrator of Mamafrica!

Aline: Before the war started in 1996 everyone had farms and fields to cultivate, animals to raise, and parents were able to feed and pay school fees for their children. But when the war started, most of people’s means were stolen, their houses were burned, their husbands killed, and their villages and communities destroyed. Many of these women are rejected by their husbands, family, and community if they are raped. And even though they have no support, they have to be strong, be everything, for their children.

Nadia: Why did you want to get involved with Mamafrica?

Aline: I have lived through many years of war, and I wanted to empower these women who have been displaced and rejected by their husbands and families. I feel determined to help these women understand that they can do something in their society, that their lives can change, if they are determined.

Nadia: Ashley, can you describe a little more in depth what you mean by a ‘holistic’ program?

Ashley Nemiro, founder of Mamafrica, modeling one of their beautiful dresses!

Ashley: Basically, Mamafrica is a three-phase program. When the women enter the program, they attend a six month healing-arts intensive course, which incorporates group trauma healing, meditation, counseling, yoga, and song and dance. They then complete a series of life sustainability education classes, where we teach nutrition, cooking, maternal child health, birth control, literacy, and financial responsibility. Then, we teach the women how to sew, tailor and embroider so that they can be employed by Mamafrica, where they make beautiful dresses, table cloths, and even yoga bags! And I should note that we allow the women to be independent and encourage them to be self-sufficient, so it is up to them how much time they want to invest in these programs.

Nadia: You mention self-sufficiency often. Do the women really have no other means of employment?

Good intentions with unintended consequences. Thrift stores like Goodwill make it difficult for the continent to develop domestic clothing industries.

Ashley: You know what’s interesting? You know how a lot of the women make money here? By selling the overstocked items that are donated by Goodwill in the West to churches in the DRC. A lot of these items are soiled clothing or just junk, stuff that the women can’t even use. And so the women take these items and sell them in the streets, and while it’s true that they can make money that way, it is also difficult for people in the DRC to manufacture their own clothes and export their products when you have that kind of flooding of [free] products from the West into the country. And 99% of the fabric is imported from China, which is why it is important for Mamafrica to use fabric manufactured in Africa, that is from Nigeria, DRC and Ghana. We purchase this fabric in bulk from a fabric vendor in downtown Bukavu.

Nadia: So when we talk about ‘sustainable fashion,’ how are you trying to make Mamafrica sustainable?

Teaching the women how to sew!

Ashley: We are really trying to create a new generation of leaders. In our new healing arts program we talk so much about being a leader, and what it means to be a leader. Because in my mind, when people ask how to change the Congo, it’s not up to the US or USAID, it’s changing the leadership inside the country. It’s about Congolese people changing the system. And that isn’t going to happen if the women don’t have any means of empowerment and can’t support their children. In Bukavu it cost $10 per child a month to attend school and this creates a challenge since many women have more than 7 children and the average wage is .20 cents a day. With the wages that the women make at Mamafrica, they are able to afford to send their children to school, pay rent for their homes, and feed their families. Aline travels to each school and pays the school fees each month to ensure that all our Mamafrica children are attending school. Our hope is that by changing these women’s lives, that positive change will trickle down to the children and change a community.

Nadia: Do the women just make clothes for women in the West?

The women also make dresses for the community’s children!

Ashley: No, they make them for women in the DRC as well. We have a shop where many women in the community come to have clothing specially sewn for them including: school uniforms, wedding dresses, and children’s clothing. So many of these women love bright prints, perhaps because wearing these colors brings happiness to their lives. And since we have to tone down the colors a bit when we market to the West, it seems that these women really enjoy making brighter clothes for each other.

Nadia: Aline, do the women enjoy the sewing work?

Girlfriends! The cooperative is a great way for the women to connect with and support each other.

Aline: Sewing is a craft that a lot of these women connect to, so it’s wonderful that they can make clothes as a way to be independent, earn money and buy food for their children. In addition they are getting training that helps them to be independent, and their children who were unable to go to school are now attending school. They are getting food for their children and families after being paid each month. Also they are making friends and connecting with other women by working in groups.

Nadia: Could you share a success story?

“Thanks to Mamafrica I am able to provide for my family and feel whole again”. -Cibalonza Kampano

Aline: Yes! Cibalonza is a woman with 5 children, and her life was honestly horrible before joining the center. Her husband abandoned her when he took another wife and left her to raise her 5 children alone. She was homeless and often times went days without feeding her children and herself. Since attending Mamafrica, Chibolonza has been able to earn money for her family, send her children to school and has made friends at Mamafrica that help her to care for her younger children when she is working. She rents a home for $10 a month and is able for the first time to provide for her childern. In October we referred Chibolonza to a partner organization where she started to receive microfinance loans and has been selling charcoal, avocados, and onions in the market and earning a living that is more than she could ever have imagined in the past. I visited her children just two months later and was shocked by how much weight they have gained. To my mind, this is a true success story.

Nadia: Any last words ladies? Anything in particular you would like readers to be aware of?

Ashley: When people buy these products, I want it to be not just because of the cause behind it, but because they really love our product. We all want good quality products that will last, and that are made with love. These women have come so far, and our products truly reflect that.

Me in my Mamafrica dress, supporting ‘Fair Trade Tuesday’ (my hat is not fair trade, but I’m a work in progress GFs!)

Since starting Mamafrica and traveling to the DRC I have become overly conscious about every purchase I make while in the DRC and back in the United States, which is why we decided to describe Mamafrica on our website as ‘consciously connecting.’ I think it is important, especially during the holiday season, to think about the people that are suffering when we unconsciously consume clothing or the latest technology. We need to raise awareness about companies that directly help the lives of others, and to make a concerted effort to support them. At Mamafrica we want everyone to know that when they buy our products, some woman’s life has been changed. If you check out our site which details how we invest the money we receive, you will see that your purchase helps send a child to school, and helps put food on the table.

That’s a powerful and ethical way to consume. When we talk about ‘ethical consumerism,’ it is ultimately about being conscious of what you are purchasing. It goes so much more beyond the fabric that is laying on your body.

Aline: I want people to know that I am determined to help women in the Congo, but I also need other people to understand why there are so many problems here, and why we need support.

I really wish the West knew why the people in the DRC experience war everyday and how severely affected we are by this. Even if we are not directly in a war zone, we are suffering from the effects of a country that has been in civil war since the 90’s. I have lived in Bukavu my whole life and I have seen things that you could never imagine.

Women in Bukavu do not have the education or the vocational skills to allow them to earn an income. These women have suffered greatly and they really need to make their lives better. This can come from support from the West by purchasing our products! When we receive support, we can continue to teach women new vocational skills, purchase sewing machines for them, and allow them to work independently and once again gain confidence in themselves and their ability to provide for their children and give them a different life. I truly believe that if these ‘mamas’ are successful, that their children will have a better chance and the cycle of violence will be broken.

Graduation day!

Mamafrica is currently looking to expand to a bigger building, which will allow for free drinking and bathing water, and more programs! Want to help? You can shop the boutique, make a donation, and contact the team for more information on how to get involved.

Would you like to learn more about the mamas behind the products? Click here to read about their amazing stories!

Looking for other ways to connect with Mamafrica? Check them out on Facebook!

Want to learn more about how the Congo’s conflict minerals make their way from the mines in eastern Congo to the cell phone in your pocket? Watch this informative video below that outlines how consumers can help end this violence:

Additional Resources:

• Looking for an overview of the Conflict Minerals Crisis? Check out RAISE Hope for Congo’s page here.
• Watch this inspiring TEDx talk by Congolese activist Bandi Mbubi, on the importance of pressuring companies for conflict-free phones.
• Want to take action? Click here and here for the different ways YOU can help, including how to make your town and campus conflict-free!
• Learn how the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act requires electronic companies who purchase minerals from the Congo to declare it clearly on their audits.
• Check out the film Stealing Africa, a 55 minute documentary that details how multinationals like Glencore are ‘sucking the continent dry.’
• Want to learn how the IMF and World Bank were involved in the sale of the mines that led to this conflict? You can read more here (‘Impoverishing a Continent’) and here (‘Why is the IMF Controversial?’)

My Related Posts:

• Ethical Fashion: How to Navigate the Industry
• Ethical Fashion: Introduction to an Ongoing Series
• The iPhone 5 and the Latest Technology: Why We Consume at the Expense of Others

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ABAN: Empowering Girls in Ghana, One Fabric at a Time

ABAN co-founder Callie Brauel, bottom right, gathers with a group of young Ghanaians benefiting from their own work through ABAN. At top left is Emmanuel Quarmyne, ABAN’s Ghana Programs Director, beside UNC graduate Carly Brantmeyer.

So, I thought I would start this week off on a bit of a lighter note than the one I left you with on Friday (sorry girlfriends, but I have to keep it real, you know?). Before turning to the final installment of my interview with Eco Fashion pioneer Marci Zaroff, I wanted to highlight a truly inspiring non-profit called ABAN (A Ban Against Neglect), co-founded by Callie Brauel and Rebecca Brandt while studying at the University of Ghana in the capital city of Accra in 2008.  Upon arriving for their semester abroad, the two students were confronted by the huge problem of environmental waste left behind by the plastic bags of pure water sold to Ghanians, in the amount of forty tons a day. As their semester progressed, they eventually discovered another haunting problem: the 30,000 street girls from rural areas of the country who had left their families in the hope of finding work in the capital, only to be left homeless in the streets. Although they volunteered at a local agency that helped some of these girls, it was only when they developed a mock nonprofit company for recycled products for a class, that the idea for ABAN began to form. Why not give these girls much needed job skills and economic independence by having them take the plastic waste from the water bags and ‘upcycle’ them into cute bags and purses? Teaming up with Ghanian University student Emmanuel Quarmyne, who is currently ABAN’s Ghana Director, the three students were able to get a few sewing machines donated by non-profits, and partnered with Street Girls Aid, a Ghanian NGO that aids a small group of mothers and girls that are living off of the street. In 2010, after winning the Carolina Challenge, the team launched their own job skills and vocational training non-profit with ten young mothers aged 15-20 coming off the streets of Accra. Now, two years later, ABAN has not only graduated their first class of girls, but recycles over ten thousand plastic bags a month!

OK, stop. Building cross-cultural coalitions to empower young girls? Through the craft of sewing? And upcycling waste while doing it? ‘Listen Girlfriends’ DIES.

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to chat with Callie Brauel, who currently resides in Chapel Hill, the other day over coffee, and she shared with me some of the challenges ABAN initially faced, how the organization works, and how they plan to move forward.

Nadia: So ABAN’s mission seems to be really holistic. In addition to the health care, living wages, daycare, and job employment the girls receive, there is also a staff of ten people, including a  house mother and psychologist on board. Was it always this way?

Callie: No, it wasn’t. When ABAN first started, we hired a seamstress and we thought it was enough to provide our class of ten girls with a job from nine to five every day. It became very clear however, that these girls had gone through so much trauma, and that unlike many Ghanians, who have a strong social and familial network, they really lacked that support.  They had, in some way or another, been neglected. And that obviously leaves scars, and it was clear that they needed emotional support as well, especially since most of them, even though they were all under the age of 20, had children. Once we realized this, we knew that we had to expand our organization’s mission and team.

So in May of 2011, Rebecca and I came back to the United States, and we went on a house tour through different parts of the U.S., and we raised $30,000 in two weeks. And with that money, we decided to get the girls out of Accra, and rent our own facility in Aburi, which is just east of the capital.

Nadia: So how does the program work now? What is a day like at ABAN?

Fun while sewing.

Callie: Well, in the morning the girls work on their products, and in the afternoon, they take Math, English, Business Education, Leadership and Empowerment courses. We really try to empower the girls as much as possible, so they take turns cooking as well. Keep in mind that most of the girls come into our program without having had much or any formal education, so vocational training is key to their success. Often the skills they learn at ABAN will prove useful in future careers or side businesses. Since the girls are paid for their work they also get the added benefits of learning to hold a job and budget their money before they graduate from ABAN, all of which are necessary skills to provide for themselves and their children.

Nadia: You describe ABAN as a ‘fabric of change.’ So how do the girls make their products?

Two students practice the art of batik dying.

Callie: What is awesome about the ABAN products is that each one is a piece of art. There is so much involvement in every step of the process, making each handmade product unique to the girl who made it. The first step involves the collection of bags. We network with local schools in the area to collect bags and promote environmental education in doing so. After collection, the bags are hand washed, sanitized and laid in the sun to dry.

We’re also working on producing a batik fabric, which is a multi-toned fabric. To make this, the girls take a piece of white fabric, and then use a wooden stamp to dip it into wax. You dye it in the first color, which is a lighter color, and then repeat the process with a darker color. That gives you the three-toned look of the fabric. And then water is used to remove the wax. And the dye we receive differs so much in color, because it is dependent on the weather and climate. So a red we get one day might be completely different from the red we receive the next. Which makes the process all the more exciting and a true learning process! Currently, the girls are learning how to make the batik fabrics,  and we’re also supporting local artisans to meet our demand. The products are finished with a final detail- a key chain made from recycled glass! We had college students come over this summer and work with a local artisan to make us a bead center on site.

Nadia: So where do you sell your products?

Desmund, Denicia’s son, sits with an ABAN travel case. One case recycles 24 plastic sachets, and provides life and job-skills training for a month for an ABAN girl.

Callie: We have an online store, and the list of retailers who sell our products are listed on there as well. Currently, 40% of our revenues come from sales, and 60% from grants and donations. We really like the idea of becoming self-sufficient through sales and having 80-90% of our revenue coming from sales, eventually.

Nadia: Are you looking to expand in the future?

Callie: Yes! We recently bought six acres of land, and in the next one to two years we will expand our program to thirty girls. Our hope is that within the next five years, we can start an actual ABAN campus for seventy to eighty girls! We are also have a sister organization called ACE (ABAN Community Employment) with ten seamstresses employed at fair wages and with key benefits who further support our organization as demand grows it the US. This extra revenue will help us expand our mission on the ground to support more girls in the ABAN school.

Nadia: So I have to ask, why is ABAN so invested in girls?

Callie: Well, for two reasons. Living in Accra, you see how vulnerable the girls are, because they are the ones who are forced to migrate to the capital to find work for their families. Secondly, there is a mounting amount of research supporting what is being labeled as The Girl Effect, that investing in a girl’s education doesn’t just change that girl’s life, it changes her family’s life as well, and betters the community. And we are definitely seeing that with the young women who have children. When their lives are improved, economically and emotionally, they can provide a better life for their children.

First graduation!

Nadia: Do you have any success stories you would like to share?

Callie: Well, there is Asimaw, who loves to sew and is currently working as an apprentice. She is dreaming of starting her own business and employing and educating many other women like herself. Oh and I have to tell you about Denicia! She’s another girl who graduated from her program and received a scholarship at a private boarding school just outside the capital in Ghana. We have recycling initiatives with several schools that send us their plastic waste, and for several months we tried to get a recycling initiative started at her school, but it never transpired. Well one day, she saw all of these bags and bags of plastic piled outside of the school that were going to be dumped in a landfill. When they started to burn all of these bags, releasing all of these chemicals into the air, Denicia sprinted across the field and put a stop to it. And now the whole school has a recycling initiative, and they send all of their plastic bags to us. She is determined to be a top military officer in Ghana and with her determination, I know she is bound to get there.

Nadia: So how can people get involved and help?

Callie: There are so many ways! We have some great educational resources for teachers who want to introduce the culture of Ghana to their students, such as the craft of bead making, music, and dance. We also have a ‘Life Change’ kit where we send students a recycled water sachet, a piece of hemp, and beads to decorate with. It is a wonderful way to empower students with the idea that they indeed, can make a change.

You can also check out our website and donate online. We have a detailed explanation of where the money goes and how it changes a girl’s life. Or you can throw an ABAN party to raise awareness with your peers. We have all of the resources online to make it really easy!

Looking for other ways to connect with ABAN? Check them out on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Want to share a short video on what ABAN is all about? Click here.

Interested in selling ABAN products at a retail location? Click here for a promotional video of all of their products!

Here’s a ten-minute documentary on the girls of ABAN:

My Related Posts:

Ethical Fashion: Introduction to an Ongoing Series