We're off and running

Our New Class
We have a first, three men in our second 2010 Evangeline
Sewing class. But first let me explain the long delay in blogs. This blog is exclusively about the work here in Cape Town and when I am away on other matters I do not blog that. So it is good to be back to keep you up to date about our computer and sewing program. There are twelve new students and I was moved by the
intensity of their desire to learn. One woman's eyes welled up with tears as she described her hunger to learn to sew. She now uses a hand powered machine she took from her mother. " I sew things to sell, cushions and fix hems and even this skirt," she said but she had never had a lesson in sewing. As always I felt their passion to learn, to try and fight out of the difficult circumstances so many face. I thanked them for coming and, having had to turn away others, explained just how much of a chance this is for them. Our class begins in what is being celebrated here as "women's week," both to celebrate the part women played in bringing down the apartheid system , but also to call for greater inclusion of women in the power and decision making in this magnificent country and in their own lives. On Wednesday, another class began-funded by a housing developer and taught by Evangeline's teachers. I can see the sense of pride in Namgamso, Rachel, Paul and Mandisa-future leaders in their communities.