Esther is Back!

Happy New Year!

We hope each of you have had a joyful and HOPE-filled start to 2016. We are so excited to share the results of our year-end campaign soon, but first we wanted to share this story. And if you’re new to our CiH family, welcome!

As many of you know, one of our ladies, Esther, was in a tragic accident a couple months back, resulting in the death of her husband and two of their children. Esther is part of the House of Moses Orphanage partnership class, identified as vulnerable to having her children taken away if her and her husband couldn’t find a way to earn an income. This vulnerable identification was placed on them from the Zambian government before the accident. 

Imagine the past couple of months that Esther has faced. Not only did she bury her baby and first born child, but she also attended the funeral of her husband, housed all out-of-town relatives for months, lost her primary income source (her husband), and struggled to survive. 

After we shared her difficult story, you all stepped up, big time. You donated almost $1,000 to cover her immediate expenses of food, soap, child’s school fees, etc. And together with the community of our CiH classes, Esther and her remaining child have survived. They have been comforted, encouraged, uplifted. They have felt great pain, but they have also experienced great hope through the women surrounding her who have spent hours praying with her, cooking for her, cleaning her entire home. 

We expected Esther to be out of class for weeks, months, potentially a year, until she could get herself out of bed and re-join the group. But just THIS WEEK, the start of a new year and her graduation year, Esther walked back through our doors. Still tender, still hurt, but walking forward, stepping into community, and making progress in her healing process. 

(Esther in yellow, working on her end-of-course practical exams)

We are so proud of Esther. We are so overjoyed to have her back at our Chikondi Community Center. Esther thanks each one of you who have played a part in her story of rising from the ashes. It’s just the beginning, but she is so very thankful. 

And also just as exciting, Esther is looking forward to the future now. She is dreaming of ways to care for her child, not out of desperation but out of pride and hope. With your contributions made in 2015, we are able to provide Esther with a seed for her to launch her own business, a long-term solution to her immediate needs. 

Esther will receive a sewing machine and materials, an opportunity given to her by you. A rare occurrence in our programming, but a bright solution to a tragedy in our family. Esther will graduate this March, and she has already started working on her final examination sewing projects. She will start sewing and selling curtains as her business, and she is so excited about it. 

We are, too! For a woman to grasp a long-term solution rooted in education and independence, especially coming out of such a dark situation, is incredible. Her forward thinking and desire for dignifying work is such an encouragement to us, and I hope it is to you also, as Esther paves a new way for women in Zambia. 

Esther’s story has touched more lives than we thought possible. And she’s just one woman in our program. Thank you for being a part of a movement so impactful in the lives of so many. 

With Chikondi,
Amy

Anastasia's Story (Video)

This is Anastasia's Story of HOPE. Because of your contributions and purchases that make it possible for her to complete our skills training program in Zambia, she is empowered and equipped to pave a new path for her family. Thank you for joining us in breaking the cycle of poverty, one stitch at a time.

Intern Feature

From the very beginning, we've relied heavily on the involvement of our interns. Our interns and volunteers are the people who have made it possible for CiH to be where it is today. They plan events for us, they fundraise, they network, they share the CiH story, they connect products to consumers who care about the story behind their accessory, they bring new ideas, and they are awesome while doing it. These folks are just the best, and we can't say enough great things about them- not just the current interns, but all who have gone before them, working in the trenches to give HOPE to women in Zambia. 

So without further ado, meet our Spring 2015 Interns! These women are pretty incredible (and the most fun to work with). Learn more about them:

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Lauren (in red), Caroline (top), Roxanna (in her fabulous LOVE T)

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Name: Lauren Haile
University: University of South Carolina
Major: Fashion Merchandising
Year: Junior
Hobbies: Relaxing by the river in my Eno hammock, eating Chipotle bowls, playing intramural sports for my sorority, Phi Mu.
Favorite Place You've Traveled: Paris!!! I went in May and the food and architecture there blew my mind.
Favorite CiH Product: The Chikondi Twist bracelet, I wear it everyday!

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Name: Caroline Dowling
University: University of South Carolina
Major: Fashion Merchandising 
Minor: Public Relations
Year: Junior
Hobbies: Playing tennis, laughing, shopping, being outside, and eating ice cream!
Favorite Place You've Traveled: Swaziland
Favorite CiH Product: No doubt the Turban Headband

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Name: Roxanna Rojas
University: University of South Carolina 
Major: Retail with emphasis in Fashion Merchandising
Minor: Theatre 
Graduation Year: May 2016
Hobbies: crossfit and volleyball
Favorite Place You've Traveled: New York 
Favorite CiH Product: My favorite Product is the Love T-shirt because its so versatile. I can wear causally or when I go workout! It's a comfortable t-shirt. 

These women go above and beyond to provide Stateside support for our Zambia operations. And while we wish they'd stick around forever (pretty please!), we realize this is just a stepping stone for many of our interns. We love seeing them pursue exciting career opportunities with Ralph Lauren Corporate, major marketing and social media companies, and graduate degree programs. We love and support our CiH family of interns and volunteers, and love that they choose to use their passions and gifts for the benefit of the ladies we work with. 

Thank you Lauren, Caroline, and Roxanna (and all who have gone before you) for all you do! You are truly making a difference in the lives of women in Zambia. 

Love,
Amy
Founder & Executive Director

[For info on how to apply for Fall 2015 & Spring 2016 internships, contact us here.]

Celebrate Yourself

Valentine’s Day may have come and gone, but that doesn’t mean the celebration of love has. At our Chikondi Community Center Valentine’s Day Party, we switched it up a bit this year. Rather than celebrate the typical relationship love, or even the trendy “Galentine’s Day,” we celebrated a love that impacts all else. The love we have for ourselves. Not a prideful or selfish way, but a dignity-affirming, worth-giving, life-speaking way. In a culture that tells a woman she can only become one when having a child, and once she is one, her only value is found in how she keeps her house, cares for her children, or serves her husband, self-worth isn’t really a thing. Women are involved in emotionally abusive relationships, not realizing that isn’t the “norm,” that a person should never be spoken to with words of hate, no matter the excuse. Some women in our program are even in physically abusive marriages, where they are taught to quiet down, to suppress their opinions and emotions, and perform their “woman” duties at home. Now we recognize that we can’t change these toxic happenings when many facets of them are woven in and out of culture. It’s a complicated issue and a difficult topic.

But what is neither complicated nor difficult is to take a Friday off and just speak life into our own souls. To appreciate ourselves. To gain confidence. To refuel and rest to be more effective in our own homes.

So for the woman who is the gossip of her community, who is constantly told that she should be ashamed of her past for having a child out of wedlock, she is reminded that she is worth loving, that her past does not define her, that those words do not shape her.

For the woman who is abused by her own husband, who is silenced by his dominance and manipulation, she gets to realize that she is more than her circumstances, that her worth isn’t defined by him.

For the woman who had to drop out of school and can’t cling to her accomplishments for her identity, she gets to see through the lenses of dignity to see that who she is matters. She has valued qualities within her that can and are impacting the world. She is enough.

And when I spoke these words of life and freedom over the ladies on Friday, I felt like I was also speaking them over myself, and over each one of you. Ladies, let’s kick those insecurities aside and celebrate who we are. Let’s stop looking to the right or to the left for indicators of how and who we should be, and instead celebrate who we were created to be: unique, inspiring, valued, worthy, loved, affirmed, enough. From over 6,000 miles away, there are 50 women who are embracing the beauty within them, and cheering you on to do so also.

While these blog posts are usually reports of what happens here for you to enjoy there, let’s make this one a bit different. Let’s connect the dots, let’s close the gap and realize that though cultures and miles (and an ocean) may separate us, deep down we’re all the same. We all wrestle with feeling like we’re enough in a world that tries to define us, with hearts that sometimes (lots of times) lie to us. Let’s recognize that there are beautiful, unique, purposed attributes in each one of us that can be used to bless the mess out of our families, our friends, and this world- but we’ll only get to if we see them clearly enough to embrace them.

What do you love about yourself? For me, I love that I am passionate (read: a driven, independent leader-type, but passionate sounds cuter). A quality that sometimes seems counter-cultural to the woman I believe I should be, yet a quality that has been placed within me for this very purpose. I can’t wait to hear what you love about yourself. Fill in the blanks with us: I love that I am _______. And go!

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With love for each one of you uniquely beautiful ladies (and handsome gents), Amy + the ladies of CiH

Orphan Prevention: One Stitch at a Time

Back in 2010, I was a rising junior at the University of South Carolina, studying Fashion Merchandising. I went on this little 6-week trip to Zambia with 21 other college students to experience life in Zambia and invest in existing projects at universities and an orphanage in the Ng’ombe compound. To me, it was just another life experience- something to do before I graduated while I still “had the time” and while I was “still young.” Little did I know, that trip would open my eyes and create a stirring in my heart that has yet to cease. I met some amazing people who impacted my worldview and my faith.

On the weekends we went to an orphanage. The little kids we played games with were adorable. They were joyful, they were full of life, they were curious, just like any other little tot is. But their eyes told a deeper story- a story of pain, neglect, rejection that no child should have to endure.

These children were orphans. Some of them had to endure the death of their mothers and fathers. Some of them were removed from their homes due to abusive situations. But most of them and many of the orphans in Zambia became orphans simply because their mothers and fathers could not afford to feed them. Can you imagine the pain? I’m not even a parent, but the thought of what a mother must feel when she’s forced to give up her child, her baby who she carried and loves so deeply, because of poverty, injustices and systems greater than she can conquer, seems unbearable. The moms of these children long to rock their babies to sleep. These moms want to make their kids laugh, feel safe, be provided for, just like every other mom. But due to financial hardship, the evil and confusing thing called poverty, she has to give up her baby. She has to release her own child to someone else who is able to feed him, to clothe him, to care for him when he’s sick, to provide for him.

As a 20-year-old seeing these babes run around cared for, able to laugh and have fun, was a thrilling thing. But as I looked in the distance, other mamas were watching. Maybe the baby I was holding was hers. Maybe the child who was getting his boo-boo attended to by an orphanage director belonged to another woman watching from afar.

Can you imagine?

Mothers of orphans like these, social orphans, have the same intense desire to mother their child that every other mother possesses. She was not abusive to her child. Her home environment was stable. But she could not feed her child. She could not provide him with the medicine he needed to fight his TB, HIV, meningitis, malaria, etc. So she did the most courageous, selfless, excruciating, painful, loving thing- she gave her baby to someone who could care for him in a way that she was not able to due to poverty, and poverty alone.

Can you imagine?

My heart in 2010 was rocked by the orphan crisis in Zambia. It simply shouldn’t be. Loving, stable, caring mothers shouldn’t have to give up their babies to be raised in a home without them. But they do, because this world is broken and hurting, and poverty is much bigger than a handout or a band-aid.

That writhing pain deep down in my soul, the intense sympathy for women I had yet to meet, kept me up at night. It wrecked me. It wrecked my plans. And it created in me a responsibility in my soul that I couldn’t ignore. It was time for someone to stand up for the mamas who want to keep their families together, but financially can’t. It was time for someone to tell that mama that she is worth it. That she is enough. That she is loveable. That she is loved.

And with a lot of thinking, praying, a huge leap, and a big dose of crazy, Clothed in Hope was formed. Equipping and empowering mothers to care for their families, to keep families together, to approach the orphan crisis from a preventative measure.

For years since, I dreamed of a local partnership with an orphanage to make this impact even deeper, even wider-reaching. But how? When I’m just one person, how could this be possible?

And then I got a phone call on an average day in October. One that came about 5 years earlier than I ever expected. From the House of Moses orphanage run by the Christian Alliance for Children in Zambia (CACZ). This orphanage is incredible, y’all. They care for babies and toddlers who have been identified as vulnerable children by the social welfare offices in Zambia. But their mission isn’t just to take children and get them adopted. Their heart is to preserve families in Zambia. They have identified the biggest cause of the orphan crisis in Zambia: child abandonment due to poverty. The solution? Poverty reduction- Women’s empowerment.

CACZ is already taking steps to intervene before mothers have their babies taken away. They run the Milk and Medicine program, offering emergency assistance to provide food to babies whose mothers cannot afford to feed them. But they recognize that these handouts are neither sustainable nor beneficial in the long-term.

Enter: Clothed in Hope! CACZ recognizes that independence and empowerment are the keys to preventing social orphans in Zambia. And they chose to partner with us to train the mothers in this vulnerable place.

Without such assistance and educational programming, mothers would have to give up their babies. Staying in an incredibly impoverished home environment would mean that babies would suffer from malnutrition, stunting, and disease, even death.

We are getting to play a vital role partnering with House of Moses orphanage. We are combatting the orphan crisis from a preventative angle. We are empowering mothers with a profitable skill so that their families don’t have to be separated, so that the child they adore can stay at home, be fed, and receive quality schooling.

This is HUGE, friends. The 5-10-20 year plan was to get to be involved directly in orphan prevention in Zambia through a local partnership. And bam! We have been hit with a tidal wave of grace to be blessed with this partnership with an organization that we respect and admire.

Fifteen ladies from House of Moses’ Milk & Medicine program, identified as the most vulnerable women in their communities, at risk of having their babies taken away, are joining our program in two short weeks. We are so excited! We are so humbled. We are so honored. And we are beyond grateful to get to play a role in the worldwide orphan crisis through our women’s empowerment program.

Thank you for joining this journey with us! Rejoice with us, celebrate with us! Huge things are happening, all thanks to each one of you who are partnering with us financially. Y’all are truly breaking the cycle of poverty, one stitch at a time, for the benefit of mamas, their dearest little ones, and entire families.

With Love, Amy Founder & Executive Director

A Heartbreaking Loss

We always knew this day would come. But somehow that doesn’t make it any easier. We know that we can’t change entire systems with our program. We know we can’t fix the life expectancy of an entire nation that hovers just around 50 years. But we do know that we can enter into these hardships, these difficult realities, and make a difference despite the rest of it. It’s that realization to which we cling with the current reality we’re facing.

Over the weekend when many of us enjoyed just another ordinary couple of days, one of the ladies in our program faced an intensely difficult day. One of the very first ladies to join our program in 2012 and one of our greatest graduate leaders now, Jessy, lost her son to a battle with HIV/AIDS on Saturday. His name was Austine and he was only 25 years old.

In a country where I see posters of HIV prevention, hear it mentioned in passing at many different places, I don’t think the magnitude of the epidemic really hit me until I dug deeper. More than one in every seven adults is living with HIV, totaling over 1.1 million people infected in the country (avert.org). These statistics are staggering, with effects far beyond numbers.

But even more staggering is the effect on Jessy. A mom who had to bury her son today. A son who died entirely too soon at the very age I am right now. A void in the family that cannot be filled. An injustice in the world played out on a very personal level. Our hearts break and feel for Jessy. I’m not a parent, so I can’t even imagine the emotions she is going through this season. But I am so beyond thankful that there are 53 mamas who can sympathize, even empathize with her.

Because of the community of strangers turned friends at the Chikondi Community Center, Jessy is not alone. Today she stands held up by her Clothed in Hope family. We cry with her. We mourn with her. We endure with her. We anger with her over the injustices of this world that take her son entirely too soon. We break with her. We take care of her, feed her family, sit in silence with her, be with her. Because that’s what family does. And each one of us, staff and graduates and “students” alike, would agree with that. We were created for community and we have been blessed by an incredible one.

So to the rest of our CiH family, you all, please join us with your thoughts and prayers for Jessy, her husband, her children, and the rest of her family as they walk through this difficult, unfathomable season. Thank you for being our family, our community, our support.

With Heartbreak & Chikondi, Amy