THE KUKMIN DAILY

“I Love Africa” (board chair: Lee Chang-ok), an Africa-specialist international relief and development NGO, will visit Kenya’s Kibera, the world’s largest slum, on November 20, to provide the women villagers with sewing machines. Last March, I Love Africa donated 60 sewing machines (photo) as a means to help the women, who suffer from poverty and AIDS, to establish a base of self-reliance. I Love Africa is the first overseas organization to support the Kibera women with sewing machines.

In a phone conversation with Kukmin Daily on the 17th, Board Chair Lee Chang-ok (center, wearing yellow vest) said, “Just as our mothers fed and educated their children with the wages they earned from sewing, we should help African women use the sewing machines and become self-reliant.”

Missionary Lee said that one million persons currently live in the Kibera slum. To the extent that a regional economy has taken shape, if the women make clothing, they will have a stable income-creating structure.

The sewing machines are supplied through the Kibera slum village’s “Power Women Center,” operated by the Kenyan government. The women learn sewing techniques (cutting, designing, overlocking, buttonholing), handicrafts, etc., and make and sell their goods. This time I Love Africa will give the center 20 additional sewing machines. A donation of one million won can buy two sewing machines along with two sewing machine tables, two chairs, and food articles.

The rate of illiteracy in the Kibera slum exceeds 90%, and more than 90% of the residents are widows, orphans and unemployed persons. In this poor environment, where it is hard for people to eat even one meal a day, many of the women are HIV-positive and are supporting five or six children by themselves after losing their husbands to AIDS. (1577-1855·iloveafrica.or.kr)

Reporter Sangmok Shin (smshin@kmib.co.kr), with Marion Kim (marionkkim@icloud.com)
Photo provided by I Love Africa


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