Langee Vicky, a seamstress at Mend, has her own sewing machine at home. But she doesn’t let it sit idle.
Instead, Vicky has started making school uniforms. She pays a small monthly fee to rent a stall at the market and was quickly asked by a local woman if she was able to make uniforms. Soon after beginning her work, another friend admired Vicky’s work and asked if Vicky would help with making additional uniforms as well.
“I feel so great because I thought I would never have this many people coming to ask me for help,” she said.
The ladies at Mend share a laugh outside of the workshop.
Vicky plans to expand on her success by investing in a personal tailoring business.
“I want to keep the money and if I raise it to a certain amount, I will start buying other materials. I can get money from the sale of material and making other pieces,” she said.
In November, the Mend ladies received tailoring training beyond the skills they gain by producing bags in order to increase their income-earning options outside of the workshop. One of the topics that Nyeko Richard, Mend’s production officer, chose to focus on was school uniforms. Four of the women have since signed contracts to make uniforms for the upcoming school term.
“After the training in making shorts and shirts, I took courage to look for some work in the market,” Adong Florence said.
Adong Florence concentrates on pieces of a uniform that she is working on.
Florence noticed that many local tailors were working on uniforms and learned from a friend that she could as well. After her tailoring skills were evaluated, Florence received additional orders, something she finds easy to complete after learning pattern making and cutting from the trainings she received at Mend.
As for the extra income she is receiving from her new contract? Florence plans to save the money and use it to pay nursery school fees for her children.
Anena Grace has also pursued tailoring of school uniforms on her own.
“Before I went to the market to acquire the contract, I started acquiring knowledge last year. It gave me courage to go to the market and ask for more work,” she said.
One of Grace’s friends has a contract for making uniforms and gave her the opportunity to help complete some of the pieces. After making two pieces and taking them for approval, Grace has since taken on more responsibility and been making dresses for students in P3 through P7. When she brought her sample uniforms for approval, Grace was told that they were perfect.
“After approvals, I felt like I should be given the whole contract to work on,” she laughed, clearly confident in her tailoring success story.
And making and selling school uniforms isn’t only helping the seamstresses increase their personal incomes.
“By bringing their more advanced skill sets into the Gulu tailoring market, the women can stimulate competition in the local economy,” Richard said.
Their enthusiasm to talk about the work they are doing outside of Mend demonstrates their growing confidence in their skill sets and continued empowerment as leaders in their families and communities.
We couldn’t be prouder.
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