100 year’s of International Women’s day- Jacqueline’s story

In these series we celebrate 100 years of International Women’s day by looking at the lives of the women behind the fabulous products at Ethnic Supplies

Yesterday we met Lillian and I would like to introduce you to  Jacqueline

Jacqueline Mutoni is 28 years old is married and has one son. She was born in Mbarara but moved to the shores of Lake Bunyonyi with her husband who teaches in the local secondary school and because of this Jacqueline and her family enjoy a better life than most around here.

Jacqueline supplements the household income by weaving baskets and sewing clothes that sold through the local group Edirisa which means “window” . Like all the local women she is up with the first rays of the sun, to collect water from the lake, clean the house, cook and tend to her son as well the vegetable garden, but still manages to allocate time to the weaving.

She has no running water, electricity or machines with which to work and preparing a simple meal of groundnut sauce and rice takes a lot of effort. The work is done in the dim glow of the charcoal stove in a kitchen no larger than a broom cupboard with a baby boy on her lap.

Jacqueline dreams of life in which her family do not struggle to make ends meet and is confident that she will achieve this through her weaving beautiful baskets that will be popular with buyers.

YOU CAN SUPPORT JACQUELINE BY BUYING ONE  OF HER BASKETS

http://www.ethnicsupplies.co.uk/shop/listing.asp?Category_ID=7