Zinnunual Omunaku Woman’s Group

Zinnunual Omunaku Woman’s Group

On 20 Feb I had the pleasure of going to the village of Luwaunda in Masaka district. I went with a newly formed collaborative group of three CBOs and NGOs that are based in Masaka. Our group is called Help Faith Serve. The members are made up of founders and committee members of Help Uganda, Faith Hope Love Missions and Serve to Save.

In the village of Luwaunda we had our first meeting with Zinnunual Omunaku Woman’s Group.  The group name means: “What you have to do to save the people from poverty” which is a Ugandan Proverb. The woman of this group number 24 and they having been meeting since are 2001. They are a wonderful group of unique and entrepreneurial woman. One the day of our meeting we had several discussion points to talk to the ladies about but one of the big items was to ask the ladies if they would be willing to partner with our group and make craft items to re-sale in the U.S. or the U.K. and to the volunteers that are coming to Masaka.

The ladies were very receptive to the idea and entering into a new business venture. We proposed a training to learn how to make paper bead necklaces and they were very excited at the prospect of learning a new craft and skill.  We set a Workshop date for that Thursday, 24 Feb.  We also asked them to bring different crafts that they know how to make, seeds (pumpkin, watermelon, coffee) for stringing, and election posters for making paper beads.

That Thursday was an amazing day and workshop with the ladies! We spent all day on one of the group member’s front lawn, talking, getting to know the ladies and making paper beads. Lauren, a long term missionary from FHLM, did a wonderful job training the ladies on how to cut the paper for the beads, roll the beads, dip them, and then string them. We had some wonderful final products! The ladies were very pleased and excited to that they could now make these necklaces and bracelets.  (Check out the pictures from the day)

On 17 March we did a follow up with group on progress of jewelry and craft making. I was in awe and so thrilled to see that each woman had made at least 10 paper bead necklaces and matching bracelets! Some woman made pumpkin seed necklaces by dying the seeds purple and stringing them with the small beads. Others made baskets, place mats, round mats for sauce pans, small bags and decorative items. All the jewelry and crafts were simply beautiful and so colorful!!

Liz, from Help Uganda, is taking some of the finished products to the U.K. I can’t wait to see how well the items sell in the U.K.