Beautiful tote bags, grocery bags, clothing, and yoga mat bags are just some of the items made by the girls!
The girls who participate are chosen based on these criteria: unable to attend school, orphaned or head of household, and at risk due to poverty.
During the past year the project has added four more girls and three more machines, thanks to many generous and caring
people who have donated time, money and resources.
Ubushobozi Project is a non-profit organization started by Jeanne Siporin, Alan Siporin and Laura Boyea in September 2008 with the goal of empowering orphaned teenage girls from the village of Gashingiro, Rwanda. Through education and skills training Ubushobozi seeks to end the cycle of poverty they have experienced throughout their young lives.
Rwanda experienced Africa's worst genocide in modern times and the country's recovery was marred by its intervention in the conflict in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
The country has been beset by ethnic tension associated with the traditionally unequal
relationship between the
dominant Tutsi minority and the majority Hutus.
Although after 1959 the ethnic relationship was reversed, when civil war prompted around 200,000 Tutsis to flee to Burundi, lingering resentment led to periodic massacres of Tutsis.
