Sewing Machines from England to Uganda

Recognise this machine?  It is one of the machines that were donated by Duncan for the charity Hope for Life Katanga, featured in a post earlier this year.  The machines were flown to Uganda last month and are already being put to good use.

A group of ladies in Katanga have completed their first project, assisted by Beth, Ellie and Laura, who travelled over to Uganda to help set up the workshop.  

Visit the website for Hope for Life Katanga, where you can see how well these ladies did with the machines.  It really gave me a thrill seeing how delighted everyone looks.  Long bobbins, round bobbins, different models... they can do it!  It is fantastic seeing the ladies in Katanga making the most of these machines.  Well done to every one!

Machines for Africa from Duncan

Duncan testing a Singer 99K, watched by Beth and Megan.  Laura, foreground, is trying out a Singer 15K

Many of you will remember me mentioning Duncan a while ago - he has been following the blog since the early days and absolutely loves rescuing neglected machines and cleaning them up.

After reading about the Dress-a-Girl dressmaking day at the sewing café he got in touch with Louise, the co-ordinator for the charity in this country.  Duncan had a number of sewing machines that he wanted to donate, and asked Louise if she knew of a suitable charity.  Louise put him in touch with Mark and Megan, who have set up a project in Uganda.  They looked into the feasibility of shipping the machines to Uganda, and decided they would gladly take them.

So last week Duncan drove half the length of the country with his car stuffed full of machines to deliver them to Mark and Megan.  I spent a happy afternoon trying out machines with Duncan, Mark and Megan, and their friends Beth, Ellie and Laura.

Ellie and Beth doing their first ever sewing with hand machines

Mark took plenty of pictures, which he has put on the website for the charity Hope for Life Katanga  This is the picture I particularly love - Ellie and Beth trying out the Singer 99Ks.  The concentration on their faces!  Beth had used a vintage electric machine with a knee bar in the past.  Ellie told us she was hopeless with sewing machines, but once she got going there was no stopping her - look at her wheel, it's a blur!

We all had a fantastic time together - gallons of tea to keep us going, and lots of enthusiasm all round.  Let's all hope and pray that these machines make a real difference to people's lives in Katanga.

Thanks again Duncan, and good luck to Mark and Megan with their project in Uganda!

Welcome to two new followers today, Lorraine Jenkins and Erin Davis - thank you for joining!