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FAQ Home > Questions |
What does Shona Mean?
Answer: Shona means “sew” in Swahili.
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What percentage of the profits does a craftsperson receive?
Answer:Each person receives 100% of the estimated profit from any product she sews.
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How many craftspeople sew with Shona?
Answer: Currently there are 5 craftspeople sewing with Shona (4 women and 1 man), all of whom are physically handicapped. Many more would like to join us. However we believe in starting small and doing it right first. By purchasing from SHONA you will help make us a sustainable business and provide opportunities for other handicapped women to join us in the future.
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Where does your cloth come from?
Answer: All of our cloth is bought in the local market here in Goma. By purchasing locally we are able to help support cloth vendors in Goma. The majority of cloths that we work with are made in Africa. Unfortunately Congo does not have a vibrant cloth industry and the virtually all cloth is imported from other African countries or from Asia.
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What are your goals?
Answer: Our goals at SHONA are two fold. First we seek to empower handicapped women. And second we seek to create a sustainable business.
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How did Shona start?
Answer: Dawn Hurley started SHONA Congo while she was living in Congo from 2006-2009. She gives this explanation for why she started SHONA. "As an American living in Congo, I found myself living in a perfectly nice house, next to neighbors who were very poor. I bought a sewing machine and started SHONA, knowing very little about sewing or about running a business, but determined to find a way to help a few women find ways to provide for themselves and their families. The women I started with had very little education, no marketable skills and no property. The goal of Shona was not so much to give those women jobs, as to empower them to find ways to improve their lives. Today, Shona is a group of physically handicapped craftspeople, particularly women. And, more than ever, it is about empowerment. Shona is organized and run by the women themselves. It is about finding better ways of life, through prayer, teamwork, education, and reaching out to others. And, of course, through sewing too.
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