Meet Fatsileni Kapele, a strong and determined woman who is fighting to provide for her family through a tailoring business.
Fatsileni’s journey has been one of resilience and determination. Though married to her husband, she still believes she has a big role to play in complementing her husband’s errands.
She worked long hours selling small food items like banana cakes—as part of complementing her husband’s efforts who is a casual labourer. However, it was not enough to support her family.
Despite the myriad challenges that she faced, Fatsileni refused to give up on her dreams of providing a better life for her family—she had to find a new way to make ends meet.
Fatsileni, who resides in the area of Group Village Head Mpulura in Balaka District, Southern Malawi, enrolled on a free tailoring course offered by a Balaka-based charity organization, Mama Amina Foundation, who train vulnerable members of their community.
She later on learnt how to sew different garments. She practised tirelessly until she was able to create beautiful clothes.
Today, Fatsileni is extremely excited having received a donation of a sewing machine, a roll of cloth and a chair courtesy of the United Kingdom-based Serving Humanity Foundation in partnership with Knowledge is Light Foundation.
“I am confident that my newfound skills and the resources I have received today will allow me to make clothes that I can sell to support my family,” Fatsileni said.
She is just one of the 50 vulnerable women who have been equipped with tailoring skills apart from receiving a donation of sewing machines, a roll of cloth and a chair to act as a start-up capital.
Speaking during the presentation ceremony, Serving Humanity founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ash Khan told Malawi 24 that they were compelled to assist the women looking at the suffering they were going through.
“Our purpose is to serve humanity. It’s not about someone’s faith but we are moved to support people looking at the problems they are going through,” said Khan.
During the same event, 10 former students from Mama Amina Girls Islamic Secondary School were also awarded educational scholarships to study various programs at various colleges both domestically and in the Republic of South Africa.
According to Knowledge is Light Director Mohammed Farooq Patel, the scholarships aim at providing girls with opportunities to further their academic studies.
Meanwhile, a representative of the Balaka District Education Office, MacPeter Lumbani, has hailed the scholarships, citing that the government alone cannot manage to raise education standards in the country.
