Last Saturday, this was said by a woman living in Kibera who had the opportunity to sell her hand-made cards at a bazaar held at a local school. We met this mother of two students at the school. She came in to our office a couple of weeks ago just hours after her husband had strangled and almost killed her. This was not the first time she had been abused by him. That very day First Love called a new landlord and assisted her in moving into a new home. Since then she has been making greeting cards to support her family. She only needed a market in which to sell her beautiful product.
I picked the women up at about 7:30 just outside of Kibera. Two of the women, Carolyn and Doris had their jewelry in hand ready to sell it in a formal market for the first time. Doris is the mother of a two month old baby. She is HIV-Aids positive and is currently awaiting the positive/negative results for her precious baby, Denmark. Agnes was dressed in her best, also ready for this exciting new opportunity. I didn’t really think about the importance of this day for these women. The chance to display the products they had worked so hard to create, practice at making change from large bills, and explaining the different pieces to potential buyers.
The day became hot, but these women’s smiles only became wider as it wore on. By the end of the day, these women had sold enough to make the equivalent of two months of work as a casual laborer. They grinned from ear to ear as we tore down the table and display, their smiles continued throughout the dusty drive home, and as we dropped them back in Kibera, these women looked different. They looked different because they carried themselves in a distinct manner. They held their heads high as they proudly returned to their small dwellings to tell their children that they would not go to bed hungry that night.
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