Just In!: Weaving a Living

The craft programme that empowers low-income women in Abuja to make a living from re-purposing scraps of cloth, by Chinelo Onwualo

On the ground floor of an uncompleted building in Katampe Extension, just beyond Asokoro, twenty women sit patiently on stools and mats whilst their children and a handful of chickens scurry around. They are adorned in colourful hijabs and wrappers amid a dreary landscape, and are part of the Village Weavers Project, a craft programme that teaches disadvantaged women in Abuja how to create table mats and rugs from discarded scraps of cloth.

They have gathered to collect their earnings from their latest sale, and as their names are called out, each woman steps forward to receive her money. Though the amount varies – from as high as N25, 000 to as little as N1, 200 – the bundles of cash wrapped with elastic bands are received with gratitude. For many of these women, the project is more than a source of income for their families: it is also a haven of friendship and support.

The project was started in 2010 by Ella Smit, the German wife of a United Nations employee, as a way of providing underprivileged women in the city a sustainable income. Mama Biu, a 50-year-old divorced mother of seven, was one of the first women to learn to weave. Originally from Kaduna State, she used to earn her living from making and selling savoury snacks like kose and massa. Speaking through a translator, she notes that the project has transformed her life.

“I was living in the back of Miss Ella’s house and she used to see me as she was passing by,” she says. “My life has been turned around [since joining this project] and now my children have been going to school and I am even building my own house.”

Mama Biu went on to teach the skill to other women in her Kudroma village community, including her own daughter. Many of the 35 women who make up the members of the project were taught by her and often come to her for advice. The women earn on average N15, 000 per month which they use to supplement their husbands’ salaries and send their children – particularly their daughters – to school.

“This project shouldn’t stop,” says Mama Biu, emphatically. “It should keep going forward. Miss Ella has left, but I pray that it continues.”

A Challenging Craft

The scheme has since grown from an informal network of friends and family to a registered non-profit organisation. It echoes similar village weaver programmes in Thailand and Armenia where poor women in rural and urban centres are taught how to use locally available materials to create a variety of goods such as mats, rugs, carpets, bags and dolls.

“It is a sustainable social enterprise,” says Amarachi Igboegwu, the co-founder and project director. “We use business ideas to give them the skills to make money, then we help them sell the products.”

But the initiative is not without its challenges. As a small-scale start-up it is still struggling with issues of organisation and structure.

After the money is shared out, the women give their names, ages and states of origin so that they can receive official identification cards, as membership in the project is going to be more tightly controlled. To encourage higher quality creations, mats that are irregularly shaped or that cannot be sold after four months are returned to their creators. And recently, the revenue distribution system was reworked to allow the project to keep a little more money for its expenses. The women now get 70 percent of the profits from their sales rather than the initial 90 percent.

“We have no funding,” says Ms. Igboegwu. “But I see it blossoming into a sustainable social enterprise. We empower women with skills that they can monetise so that they can build healthy families, because we believe women are the bedrock of any society. Hopefully, as we get more funding we can grow it.”

Finding a market has also been a challenge for the project. The products range from N500 for a small table mat to N4,000 for a full-size rug. “For the average Nigerian, this is just out of their range,” says Ms. Igboegwu. “So we sell to expats and high-income Nigerians because they understand the value of it.”

Making the rugs and mats isn’t easy either. They are thick, colourful creations held together by the same type of thread used by leather workers. Mama Rabiu, a 45-year-old mother of ten from Katsina State, notes that weaving the mats can be time-consuming – particularly when one has to juggle childcare and housework. A table mat of 40 x 30 cm can take a whole day to make, while a living room rug of 110 x 100 cm can take three to five days.

“The thread can cut your hands, especially the sides,” she says as she displays her shredded cuticles. “Sometimes I can be working up till 3am in the morning.”

Her daughter, Shamsiya Buhari, 16, has to find time between school and her chores to make the mats, but she has few complaints. Sales of her mats and rugs have helped her pay her own school fees, transportation, uniform and books. “I want to be a nurse,” she says, dreamily. “And I can do it with what I’m making here.”

To purchase a mat or rug:

Website: www.villageweaversproject.org

Email: villageweaversproject@gmail.com

Phone: 08169856709 (Amara) or 07038051042 (Esther)

More pictures below: