During the day, the children’s centre, built in the middle of a refugee zone, is used to train and teach a group of 15 ladies, mainly widows, in dressmaking and tailoring skills on treddle sewing machines.

Our first group of ladies have now ‘graduated’, and each of them is given their own machine which will provide a small income to support themselves and their dependants or some of the local orphans.

The next group of single mums and widows are now being trained by our resident tailor to try and help them become self-sufficient also enabling them to provide food for their families and children.
Eagles Wings has financed the purchase of another batch of sewing machines which can be bought locally at around £80 – £100 each (yes, new and just like grandma used to have!).

The ladies use cement bags as pattern templates for simple dresses and trousers, blouses and shirts.
The trainer has been financed by us at a cost of around £40 salary per month.

A number of ladies have kindly stocked us with old patterns, buttons, braids and zips and recently we have shipped a tailors dummy to the school from the UK.

The packs of buttons, braids and insignia are relatively lightweight and we have been successful in sending them to Uganda through the Royal Mail at a reasonable price. Normally it is not cost effective to do this but it allows us to give them some fun “English’ bits to make their clothes a little more creative and fashionable!
We are always looking for those who might like to sponsor a sewing machine at around £100.

Ladies using sewing machines donated by supporters of Eagles Wings

Dress making patterns made from paper bags