This past spring, the Lwala Community Alliance began a partnership with Thistle Farms, a Nashville-based nonprofit business run by women who have survived lives of violence, prostitution, and abuse. The women at Thistle Farms make, package, and market natural bath and body products that are sold in a number of stores. In partnering with these efforts this past spring, the New Vision Women’s Sewing Group in Lwala made beautiful cloth bags for the Thistle Farms “Summer Survival Kits.” Currently, the sewing group is working on the “Winter Survival Kits” to be sold over the next few months. Proceeds from the sales of the kits benefit Thistle Farms and the sewing group in Lwala, thereby supporting microenterprise efforts for both groups of women.
In addition, the Lwala Community Alliance is teaming up with another Nashville-based nonprofit called Got Your Back to provide 400 girls in grades 6-8 in Lwala with a school uniform and a pack of 5 reusuable menstrual pads. These efforts are aimed at providing incentives to girls to attend school at a time when many of them drop out. The uniforms and menstrual pads will be sewn by the women in the New Vision Women’s Sewing Group as well as by women tailors in the participating school communities.
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