How We Work
SHONA is a small,grass-roots organization dedicated to empowering handicapped people in Congo, primarily women. We have no outside funding and no paid staff.
TRAINING: SHONA is composed of craftspeople who have graduated from the Handicapped Center in Goma. These young women have typically spent 3-4 years living at the Center for Handicapped People where they underwent operations and treatment for their physical disabilities and were given basic literacy classes and sewing classes. When they graduate from these classes they are then required to leave the Center which has been their home for much of their teenage years, and they often struggle with returning to their rural villages, as the continuing war makes it unsafe. SHONA provides a safe and healthy alternative, and an opportunity to use the sewing skills they have learned at the Center. After a careful selection process, SHONA interns are aprenticed to veteran SHONA craftspeople, and are provided with housing and food, while they learn to sew new products and master the level of quality control and attention to detail necessary for work in an international market. The interns live and work with their mentors, and attend education classes as well. By placing the training process in the hands of our veteran craftspeople, we are able to keep the organization truly local and grassroots, and instead of bringing "experts" in from the outside, the women themselves become the experts, creating a true sense of ownership amongst the craftspeople.
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JUST WAGES: After a craftsperson has been trained she is paid on a monthly basis for each piece that she sews. The price per piece is representative of the full profit that SHONA typically earns for the sale of that product.
* By paying on a monthly basis SHONA provides its craftspeople with a consistent income, and the ability to begin savings programs and financial planning.
* By paying 100% of the estimated profit from an item, SHONA rises well above all "Fair Trade" standards.
*By paying in advance, SHONA ensures that the craftspeople are paid in timely and consistent manner, a privilege which is rarely afforded to poor people.
EDUCATION: SHONA women participate in adult education courses two times a week. There are on-going courses in French and math, as well as rotating courses on a variety of themes such as leadership and health. The courses have grown out of a deep desire for education on the part of the craftspeople, as well as the need for math, French and accounting skills in their work. They are free of charge for SHONA craftspeople, and are funded entirely through our donation page.
INDEPENDENCE: As they progress through courses in mathematics, accounting, and business skills, SHONA women are gradually expected to assume responsibility for their own work in the form of a small business. At the beginning of work, they are provided with a bank account, encouraged to save, and after completing the accounting course they are required to submit their accounting books on a monthly basis. Each woman saves money to rent her own workshop (or she can choose to share expenses with another member. . In this way, SHONA seeks to break cycles of dependency and encourages the women to see the work as truly their own.
