2011.02.09: February 9, 2011: When Seamstress Claudia Jayne first arrived at Nagado Village as a Peace Corps volunteer, she came up with the idea of a sewing workshop
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2011.02.09: February 9, 2011: When Seamstress Claudia Jayne first arrived at Nagado Village as a Peace Corps volunteer, she came up with the idea of a sewing workshop
When Seamstress Claudia Jayne first arrived at Nagado Village as a Peace Corps volunteer, she came up with the idea of a sewing workshop
At the workshop in Nagado, she found out that the knowledge of sewing had been lost and she concluded that empowering the village women was going to be the first step she needed to take in order to help them. Having a successful business in the United States made Claudia more determined to get the women to start sewing again. "I was surprised to hear how little many of them knew about sewing," she said after the first day of the workshop. "I thought when I came here, that everyone would know how to sew. I figured that everyone would know how to sew. "It is very easy for me to teach sewing so we began with the basics of hand sewing and moved to machine sewing and maintenance, working with paper patterns and pattern making from their old clothes." Claudia not only managed to empower the women to sew but got hold of a number of rusted Singer sewing machines and repaired them. "The women had thrown them away because they thought they were broken. "To them they were broken but we managed to fix 15 sewing machines in two days. "Twenty women came to the workshop and said they had the Chinese-made treadle sewing machines and were ashamed of bringing their old and rusty sewing machines. "I told them bring them, I love old machines, especially the Singer sewing machines and before I knew it, I fixed 15 of them and two of them were more than 150 years old. "We got them going and when I say we, I mean we prayed before and after fixing the machines. We knew that God was helping us because I couldn't do it by myself. "In the end, all the twenty women were sewing in the village hall. It was incredible and we had tears in our eyes," Claudia said of the changes that came to the tiny village in Ba. "The turaga ni koro's wife said to me that 20 years ago, they had put the sewing machines away thinking they were broken. "They did not know that 20 years later, an American woman would come along and fix them and now the whole village is sewing and we can actually sew our own school uniforms.
When Seamstress Claudia Jayne first arrived at Nagado Village as a Peace Corps volunteer, she came up with the idea of a sewing workshop
Seamstress at work
Kelera Serelini
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
WHEN seamstress Claudia Jayne first arrived at Nagado Village as a Peace Corps volunteer, her first assumption was that Fijian village women knew how to sew.
This was mainly because of what she had learnt that Fiji had been part of a colonial era and the women had been introduced to the craft by the wives of the early missionaries dating back to the 1830s.
That thought brought a level of eagerness in her and she wanted be involved in the village community and share her love of sewing with other women in the village.
Most of all, Claudia wanted to learn from what the women in the village had supposedly learnt or been taught over the years.
So she came up with the idea of a sewing workshop and it was not a bad idea, as the women of Nagado found out.
Claudia has been sewing since she was five years old.
She taught herself to sew and in the process learnt everything about sewing machines.
Claudia has a business of her own which specialises in beddings.
It is a business she thought any woman who knew how to sew could get into but things were not as they seemed.
At the workshop in Nagado, she found out that the knowledge of sewing had been lost and she concluded that empowering the village women was going to be the first step she needed to take in order to help them.
Having a successful business in the United States made Claudia more determined to get the women to start sewing again.
"I was surprised to hear how little many of them knew about sewing," she said after the first day of the workshop.
"I thought when I came here, that everyone would know how to sew. I figured that everyone would know how to sew.
"It is very easy for me to teach sewing so we began with the basics of hand sewing and moved to machine sewing and maintenance, working with paper patterns and pattern making from their old clothes."
Claudia not only managed to empower the women to sew but got hold of a number of rusted Singer sewing machines and repaired them.
"The women had thrown them away because they thought they were broken.
"To them they were broken but we managed to fix 15 sewing machines in two days.
"Twenty women came to the workshop and said they had the Chinese-made treadle sewing machines and were ashamed of bringing their old and rusty sewing machines.
"I told them bring them, I love old machines, especially the Singer sewing machines and before I knew it, I fixed 15 of them and two of them were more than 150 years old.
"We got them going and when I say we, I mean we prayed before and after fixing the machines. We knew that God was helping us because I couldn't do it by myself.
"In the end, all the twenty women were sewing in the village hall. It was incredible and we had tears in our eyes," Claudia said of the changes that came to the tiny village in Ba.
"The turaga ni koro's wife said to me that 20 years ago, they had put the sewing machines away thinking they were broken.
"They did not know that 20 years later, an American woman would come along and fix them and now the whole village is sewing and we can actually sew our own school uniforms.
"Now the women don't have to pay someone else to make the uniforms for them. They can sew them themselves and make money.
"For me it was a satisfying feeling, seeing the women sew again and make a living."
Claudia has never been more satisfied than seeing the women busy sewing every day. Claudia, as a Peace Corps volunteer, hoped to empower Fijian women to be independent and use their skills to earn a living and carry on as how the wives of the early missionaries had wanted of them more than 100 years ago.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: February, 2011; Peace Corps Fiji; Directory of Fiji RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Fiji RPCVs; Women's Issues
When this story was posted in February 2011, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| How Volunteers Remember Sarge As the Peace Corps' Founding Director Sargent Shriver laid the foundations for the most lasting accomplishment of the Kennedy presidency. Shriver spoke to returned volunteers at the Peace Vigil at Lincoln Memorial in September, 2001 for the Peace Corps 40th. "The challenge I believe is simple - simple to express but difficult to fulfill. That challenge is expressed in these words: PCV's - stay as you are. Be servants of peace. Work at home as you have worked abroad. Humbly, persistently, intelligently. Weep with those who are sorrowful, Care for those who are sick. Serve your wives, serve your husbands, serve your families, serve your neighbors, serve your cities, serve the poor, join others who also serve," said Shriver. "Serve, Serve, Serve. That's the answer, that's the objective, that's the challenge." |
| Support Independent Funding for the Third Goal The Peace Corps has always neglected the third goal, allocating less than 1% of their resources to "bringing the world back home." Senator Dodd addressed this issue in the "Peace Corps for the 21st Century" bill passed by the US Senate and Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter proposed a "Peace Corps Foundation" at no cost to the US government. Both are good approaches but the recent "Comprehensive Assessment Report" didn't address the issue of independent funding for the third goal at all. |
| Memo to Incoming Director Williams PCOL has asked five prominent RPCVs and Staff to write a memo on the most important issues facing the Peace Corps today. Issues raised include the independence of the Peace Corps, political appointments at the agency, revitalizing the five-year rule, lowering the ET rate, empowering volunteers, removing financial barriers to service, increasing the agency's budget, reducing costs, and making the Peace Corps bureaucracy more efficient and responsive. Latest: Greetings from Director Williams |
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Story Source: Fiji Times
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Fiji; Women's Issues
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