At the core of our work here at Imara is our Tailoring Project. Led by master seamstress Eunice Akeno, the project serves the dual purpose of delivering upon our objectives around women’s empowerment, and generating income to fund our other projects.
Promoting Women’s Empowerment
Having suffered a challenging start to life, Eunice found strength in her talent for textiles and tailoring, and has put these skills to use not only in achieving financial independence, but also in helping other women to do the same. At a young age, Eunice became an orphan, and was left to care for her two younger siblings, unable to finish her education. Through hard work and perseverance, she supported her siblings and survived long enough to gain skills in tailoring.
Now and experience textile designer, Eunice takes on two apprentices each year, offering them a free one-year course in which they are able to learn the essential skills needed to gain employment or work as a freelance tailor. These women are vulnerable because of early pregnancies, being orphans, living with disabilities, having quit school, or living below the poverty level. This unique opportunity to gain tailoring competencies for free opens the door to jobs, gives the skills needed to be able to run a business, and even offers the opportunity to earn money during the training period to satisfy their basic needs and support themselves and their families.
Income to support our partners
As the training continues, the tailoring project is continually producing high quality traditional garments and accessories which will be sold locally or internationally. Everything we make through selling these clothes goes straight back into the community. It is ethical, profitable enterprises such as this which will allow us to soon become self-sustaining.
Due to the small-scale of our team, we are able to accept custom orders on a rolling basis. To view our range of garments and accessories, head to our Shop.
After the trainees have claimed their small commission, the remaining profit is channelled into our funds for other projects. With a CBO such as ours, we have to be flexible in our spending, and always take great care that the money goes to the right place. This is why we will always look to support our longstanding partners first.
To see which local causes your purchase could benefit, head to our Partners Page.
