Tailoring School
FRMA has designed a unique evangelistic program for the children in Africa called Love Covers. The idea was to tangibly show impoverished children God’s love by covering them with clothing, blankets, and mosquito nets. There was a looming problem getting the materials and products from America to Africa for our outreach. There was no way to ship items into Uganda duty free. That meant we would have to pay upwards of 50 percent in duty on anything we shipped. It was not possible to proceed with Love Covers until an affordable solution was made clear.
Amazingly, within days of praying, God gave us the idea to expand Rabuna Fi and start a tailoring school in South Sudan. We would raise money for the sewing machines; train the women in our discipleship program to sew by making the uniforms and play clothes for the children. The women could “earn” their machine at the end of the program take the machine home with them.
In November 2006, we opened the school completely on faith with only three machines. Twenty women joined us from 9 AM to 1 PM daily to learn the art of tailoring. By the time the ladies were ready to start learning on an actual machine, God had stirred over 200 women in the USA to donate enough money to provide all of the sewing machines! This first class lasted four months. In these four months, the students had daily devotions, English lessons and learned a new self-sustaining trade. On graduation day, a big party was held and the entire community was invited to participate in the celebration. Each woman was given a certificate of completion and their own sewing machine to take home to start a tailoring business.
Today, our tailoring school is a key component in our “Love Covers Outreach,” through which we have clothed over 5,000 kids in Uganda and Sudan.