A weekend at Wend

Measuring Fabric

Catherine, my group leader

Sewing

Jolly Okot

Jolly

I first was introduced to Uganda when I was in high school through Invisible Children. Invisible Children was started when three filmmakers met a lady named Jolly (Joe-lee) Okot in Gulu, Uganda. She showed them the nightly walk that thousands of children made into the city to keep safe from abduction from the Lord’s Resistance Army. Jolly was abducted herself when she was nineteen and was a soldier in the LRA for several years. She escaped and then began fighting to help children and women who were abducted. She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 and is an amazing woman of God. Jolly would go on to be a huge part of Invisible Children until their closure in 2012. Jolly then started Wend, a sewing shop that makes good quality bags and jewelry and employs 20 women who were either child brides or otherwise affected by the LRA. After I had decided to move to Uganda but was still living in Memphis, I was asked to go to a fundraiser for “a lady from Uganda”, I had planned to stop in, say hello and then make my exit so I could go to a NBA game I had tickets for. Well that plan changed as soon as I walked in the door and saw Jolly Okot standing in the living room. I stayed and heard her story, heard about Wend and what Jolly’s vision for the future was. We exchanged numbers since I would soon be in Karuma, just an hour south of Gulu, and I left still in shock that I had just met the woman who was in part responsible for me moving to Uganda.

Fast forward one year and I was now standing in the office that was once the Invisible Children office seeing Jolly again. Several girls who were interning at Restoration Gateway and I were going to stay for the weekend with Jolly. We were each put with a group of ladies to work for the day. Most of the ladies do not speak English and except for a few words here and there we do not speak Acholi. After saying hello, I was grabbed by the hand and pulled to the cutting station. I was told measurements in Acholi, and then marked it in chalk and started cutting. After that we moved onto the sewing machine. I was handed a piece of fabric and told to sew a straight line. Okay now I am not a master seamstress but I can work a sewing machine, or at least I thought I could. This was the hardest thing ever! It either went way to fast to where I couldn’t keep up or it wouldn’t go at all. After fighting with the machine for an hour it was lunch time. We all sat outside on flattened cardboard and ate our beans and posho (a thick white corn and water mix) and then started back to work. After work we all went back to Jolly’s house and just sat around and laughed and talked until dinner and then off to bed we went. The next day we went to the market and many of the girls bought fabric and had dresses and shirts made. We had a great American lunch and then headed out to a friend of mine’s school. They had a whole assembly prepared just for us. We sat while each class recited poems and then there was traditional dancers who insisted on us joining in. It was such an amazing weekend diving even deeper into the culture of northern Uganda. I have continued seeing Jolly and I am amazed at her love and commitment to her people. She has shown Christs love as she gives everything she has to help these women recover from a war they never chose. She has used the profits of her business to send the children of these women to school. She has an amazing husband, Emmy, who has been a wonderful support. He talks about her and you can see the pride and love he has for his wife. He is so selfless as she is away a lot, going to America for trade shows and fundraisers.

They are starting to fundraise to be able to build on land they own instead of renting where they are now. This will allow thememploy more women, they also plan to build a nursery school on the property so the women can bring their children with them to work and the children can receive a solid start to their education. It saddens me to know that they will be leaving the Invisible Children office that drew me to Uganda but I am so excited to see where Jolly is able to take Wend in the future.

God gives each of us a voice to use and Jolly uses hers well. She is such a kind and loving person and she uses her voice to advocate for her own people. She and I sat and talked about her model for supporters and she said it so well. She wants supporters, people who support her vision and support her country, at the same time she will and has returned checks to people who want to lead her and/or want to tell her what her country needs. I so agree, one of the things I have learned from my time here is that Uganda is its own country with its own culture. We as foreign aid need to listen before we speak, we need to support Ugandans who are already working to care for their country and we need to fit ourselves into their vision not tell them how to do it best. By supporting we empower them to make decisions and lead their country to independence from foreign aid.

I am so thankful that God has led me here to partner with Restoration Gateway, the people of Uganda and learn more about this country and the love of Christ around the world.

Thank you for partnering with me so I can do this!!!

Jessica

To learn more about Wend and to see the beautiful pieces they have visit www.wendafrica.com