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A UMNS Report
By Eveline Chikwanah*

1:00 P.M. EDT July 7, 2011 | CHITUNGWIZA, Zimbabwe (UMNS)

Jennipher Mungure inspects bedding created by a women’s club run by The United Methodist Church in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe. Mungure is one of many women who supplement their income with sewing. UMNS photos by Eveline Chikwanah.
View in Photo Gallery

Electric sewing machines buzz. Aged hand-operated machines creak, some thirsty for a few drops of oil. Figures bent on all fours murmur as they precariously juggle scissors, pins and paper. A lone voice breaks the monotony and the machines go silent.

Instructions are issued; some hands go up with questions. The instructor repeats what she has just said and demonstrates what to do. Then it’s back to work again. Machines pick up their cadence, and pins are tucked into paper as scissors snip up and down.

Welcome to the women’s club run by The United Methodist Church to try to empower members financially by teaching them to sew, crochet, knit and bake.

“We run the club to impart skills which members can use to earn a living,” said Jennipher Mungure, chairperson for the Chitungwiza-Marondera District.

This month, the lessons were about how to sew a bedroom set with a throw, two pillows and four scatter cushions. The workshop was in the local church sanctuary.

The seven-piece set, whose materials cost about $100 in U.S. currency, can be sold for at least $300. Orders for the trendy bedroom accessories have started trickling in.

“We use the acquired skills to furnish our homes at affordable costs and also earn a living,” said the 55-year-old Mungure, who supplements her meager widow’s pension with earnings from sewing, crocheting and baking cakes for all occasions.

Many skills acquired

On Tuesday mornings, church buildings in the 14 circuits that make up the district are temporarily transformed into workshops as members meet and share patterns and recipes. Annual competitions among the circuits ensure that high standards are achieved and maintained as members battle to make the best products possible.

For Margaret Guvheya, 74, the club has played a major role in her life:

“I joined when I married in 1957 and have acquired many skills. Initially we were taught how to clean our homes and later began to make dolls from the fruits of the indigenous mutamba tree. The dolls were sold to tourists.”

A Zimbabwean woman works with a hand-operated sewing machine during a workshop for 14 circuits inside the sanctuary of the United Methodist church. View in Photo Gallery

The mutamba produces a round fruit, similar to an orange, but with a hard shell that has to be cracked to get to the juicy flesh.

Guvheya, now widowed, said craftwork in the 1960s included making beads from the seeds of wild fruit trees and sandals from reeds. “I supplemented my husband’s income with earning from items I made at the church club,” she said.

Seke South local church chairperson, Helen Paraiwa, said she learned to sew clothes for her family. “I can now sew dresses, suits, shirts, T-shirts and trousers for my family. I am also able to feed my children and grandchildren because the club encourages us to plant back gardens for vegetables, herbs and fruits.”

Paraiwa, 60, has been a club member for a decade. She now sells cupcakes and vegetables in her neighborhood. “At club meetings, we network as women and share ideas on how we can raise our families and fight poverty.”

Club members last year learned to sew school satchels and traveling bags. This enabled women with children of school age to save the cost of buying satchels.

The women’s club, Rukwadzano Rwe Wadzimai, formed the club to forward the union’s goal of making members financially independent through promoting craft skills. RRW members are single parents, widows and married members of The United Methodist Church. For a nominal membership fee, members can access training that vastly improves their lifestyle.

A prominent member of the Chitungwiza-Marondera RRW club is district worker Mavis Chimbunde, whose husband, Nyasha, is a pastor.

“The club is an important activity in the church as it helps us care and provide for our families. It empowers women to become self-sufficient,” she said, adding that some members benefited from sewing school uniforms and establishing backyard projects.

Chimbunde said the aim of the RRW club is to enable members to get free training and use the education to set up income-generating projects. Members can also make nutritious meals at an affordable cost. As an example, since learning how to make their own pasta last year, they no longer buy the product, thereby saving money.

The homes of some members now sport colorful and stylish kitchen curtains, thanks to the RRW club. Lounges also benefited from the balloon curtain, which was one of the items made last year.

Women share sewing tips during the month’s lesson on how
to sew a bedroom set. The workshop empowers women
financially by teaching them to sew, crochet, knit and bake.
View in Photo Gallery

Many challenges

No one is really sure when the RRW club was established. One of the pioneers of RRW, Martha Mudzengerere, recalls joining in the early 1940s.

“I was a member in the ‘40s and became a club teacher in 1948,” she reminisced. “Initially I taught knitting, crocheting and cooking, but we realized that most women at the time had no access to basic education, so I was assigned a literacy class.”

Mudzengerere, 101, said she also taught young women who left school but were not yet married. “The aim of the club was to teach women that we do not need to buy everything. We can make high-quality products which cost little and do not strain our pockets,” she said.

The club has its share of challenges. “The church does not have sewing machines; we use our own and those without have to borrow from other members,” said Paraiwa. At times, members have to pool their resources for the association to run efficiently.

“We also face problems raising funds required to purchase materials,” she said.

Despite the many hurdles in their way, club members make their way to the church sanctuary each Tuesday morning, knitting needles and other tools in hand, eager to learn and network with their peers.

*Chikwanah is a communicator from East Zimbabwe Annual Conference.

News media contact: Tafadzwa W. Mudambanuki, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.