Women breaking barriers - PICS of my women's school

A big initiative in Mali is to integrate women into men's traditional roles. One of those pushes includes helping women enter the sewing industry. You might think it's weird - because in the States, women are typically tailors, but here, it's predominantly men. This is why my second service (job) is to teach business skills to women entering the male-dominated field of tailoring. 

These are pics of one of the days I spent at the women's sewing center. I brought along a little girl named Kadia, who wanted to learn how to sew. Of course, she's too young, but I thought it would be enriching for her to see women working in a male-dominated field, and people working hard, in general. Teaching work ethic to youth is very important here. 

These are pics of the sewing school - where the women were using cement sacks to practice their sewing. 

These are Malian women's shirts they drew on the chalkboard.

The photo of the complet (full outfit - shirt and pagne) the women were practicing to make.

To practice they make cement sack clothes - like this dress hanging on the wall.

The only pair of scissors they have for 30 women. Like most things in Mali, they all have to share.

This is a Malian iron. Also why we say some things here look like they're from the Stone Age. But really, they put burning hot coals inside the iron and iron away!

This is Kadia, the little girl who shadowed me/the women sewing. She said some of her favorite things to do were sew, eat and study. :)

This is the sewing school. These are the old Butterfly and Singer sewing machines that we used to use in the States in what...the 50s? In order for women to start their businesses after their classes are finished, they have to buy one of these machines. As you can probably guess, they're very, very, very expensive for Malians to afford - 35,000-40,000 CFAs, which is the equivalent of $70-$80. How on earth, when 75% of Malians live off of $1 a day, could they ever afford this machine? That's why I'm here...I don't know the answer yet, but I'm thinking some "Savings for Change" and other money-saving techniques are going to be very important. 

This is cool - the woman on the right in the green is a teacher. She's been sewing for three years and she is an awesome lady. Today she told me how she is still a teacher because she can't afford a sewing machine to start her own business. She also said it's a challenge because you have to pay to start your own business - "Get papers from the super prefet" which is also expensive. But, the people here just keep on keeping on. It's very promising to actually see a group of people working - they're learning work ethic and taking matters into their own hands, which is oftentimes...rare. 

The next pics are just pics I took from a Malian clothes catalogue. This way you can see what Malian clothes look like. This fabric looks shiny, right? It's called BAZAN, and it's the shiny wax fabric Malians wear for BIG events. 

Here's one of the old Butterfly machines. I'm slowly learning how to sew on these machines!

Front of the sewing center.

Kadia and I - Taking daughters to work! It's so important for girls (here and around the world) to see women in positions of power, in stereotypical male roles, in respected positions - it shows them that it's possible - because someone before them is doing it. They then believe in themselves, that they too, can achieve...anything.