Amazing Women

About a year ago I read the book "Half the Sky" true stories of women around the world who turned oppression into hope.  It is really a book worth reading, each story in there is inspiring.

I think that each of the following three stories could easily fit into that book as well.  Here are some women I've met at Uswaa who are fighting to turn oppression into hope.

First meet Neema. 

Neema and her mother have this vanilla garden.  You can see in the picture below the vanilla vine (the one with the small skinny leaves) growing up the tree with the bigger wider leaves.  In Neema's hands she's holding three bundles of dried vanilla beans ready to take to market.

Each one of those bundles is worth 370,000 Tanzanian Shillings or $244 US Dollars.  Amazing, you can't believe what that money can do for this family.  Those little bundles smell amazing too - but that's hardly the point.

I was told there are about 92 women throughout the village of Uswaa that are growing vanilla.  There is one place their dried bundles and it is taken to town to be sold in bulk, the women get all of the profit from the vanilla without having to pay a "middle man." 



Then there is MaSwai.  Cows are her business.  More specifically, milk.

MaSwai collects milk.  Her home is the place where all of the women bring their milk.  Daily she is waiting there with her buckets, collecting milk, measuring and recording each woman's contribution.  When she has gathered all of the milk for the day it is taken to town to be sold, again the women get every cent of the profit.

MaSwai's husband was telling me all about the project, I asked what kind of money they get for a five gallon bucket of milk.  He said "I don't know, cow's are women's business, but I know she always has enough money."


Finally, meet Mama Anna

Mama Anna is a midwife and very early on the morning we met her she had been at the dispensary delivering a baby.  She also is the organizer of a group called Huduma.  Huduma is women living with HIV/AIDs and Mama Anna helps to gather them and offer support and whatever resources she can come up with for them.

Obviously there are not a lot of women that are clamoring to be in this group.  HIV/AIDs is not something people are wanting all of the public to know they have.  So these women need gentle and loving encouragement to get started in the group.  We were told that Mama Anna is a pro at approaching people who she suspects are ill and working with them to get the resources available for them.  The medication they need now is free and readily available, but they have to be willing to admit they need it and to have someone help them along the way.  Mama Anna is that someone.

Here Mama Anna is pictured with Lillian, Mama Anna is Lillian's guardian.  Lillian has told us that she wants to be an attorney and become an advocate for children.  Obviously Mama Anna's generous and compassionate heart is influencing Lillian in the best possible way.


Sometimes I think we get very narrowly focused in our Global Mission work.  We can simplify it all to something like "thank goodness we are working with these people because they would have nothing without us."   Southwood has been working with Uswaa for something like 10 years, and we have done a lot of projects and that is great.  However, I've said it before and I'll continue to say it - Global Mission work is really about the relationships.  When we build relationships and get out into the village to meet and know the people, we find that there are some pretty amazing stories already in motion of people working diligently to support and lift each other up.

These three stories have nothing to do with us, but yet they do, because we get to watch, and learn, and be inspired by how God is already at work before we even get here.