Our Women
We care about the women of Mozambique.
By learning how to crochet, our women have an opportunity to improve their lives and empower those around them.
As a single mother of eight children, Laura stays busy working her crop fields, carrying water from the river, and maintaining her home in the Mozambican bush. After establishing a relationship with Heleen, Laura learned how to crochet the capulana bags. She now has a form of income that she would otherwise go without since her husband passed away and they eat what they grow. Laura chooses to continue working hard and crocheting bags, understanding the suffering her family would endure without the income that is used to buy maize flour, soap, and oil. Laura aspires to move to a different plot of land and to have a safe home to raise her children. Laura is enthusiastic about being able to provide for her family while saving money to achieve her dreams thanks to her new source of income.
Laura
Seven years ago, Helena broke her hip in an altercation with her husband, leaving her unable to walk without a cane. Her disability prevents her from managing a crop field, forcing her to rely on her sole daughter and son-in-law for basic needs. Since joining Athiyana and learning how to crochet, Helena has eased the burden of dependence from her daughter. She uses her income to purchase fish, maize flour, salt, and soap. Crocheting the bags has become a source of hope and contentment for Helena. In the future she plans on using the bag money to build a concrete house with a metal roof instead of the usual reed roof which has to be replaced every year. For Helena, crocheting gives her much more than money, she finds joy in a chance to be independent.
Helena
Francellina
Francellina is a single mother of eight. She has a very loving and caring personality that is represented by her sweet smile. Up until she began crocheting, farming was the only way that Francellina was able to provide for her family. The little food that she harvested was barely enough to help them survive each day. She is now able to buy multiple bags of maize flour, and give her family more nutritious meals. This opportunity has given her a better life,
and she says that none of this would have been possible without God.
Isabel
Isabel enjoys listening to music with her children throughout the day, matching her vibrant personality and genuine smile. Because of how happy she seems, you would never guess that she lost her oldest daughter (25) to dehydration of March 2018. She uses the money she makes from selling her capulana bags to buy books for the rest of her nine children, as they are her main priority. Being with her family brings her the most happiness. If there was one thing she would want the world to know, it would be that "there are so many bags to buy!".
