Meet Damalie

This adorable young lady is Damalie Winslett Naluyijja.  Damalie is a great example of social entrepreneurship. She borrowed 2.6 million Ugandan Shillings (the equivalent of $1200 at the time) from the LDS Perpetual Education Fund and completed a series of courses at a fashion design school in Kampala.  She pays back about $22 per month to the church for the loan and is almost finished paying it off. 

Last year we commissioned Damalie to help us make several thousand reusable sanitary napkin pads kits for a project to help girls stay in school.  We bought her a sewing machine and a snap machine & gave her enough money to buy materials to make 500 reusable sanitary napkin kits we plan to give to the female student body of a little high school our organization has been working with: Saint Ann Grace Secondary School in Nakifuma, Uganda.  (We will be delivering the kits to the school this Friday, with any luck, and will write more on the project then.) . Damalie now uses that sewing machine to make and sell clothing.  She has clients as far away as Kenya placing orders for her products.  She is amazingly skilled. She is exactly the type of person needed to develop Africa in productive and positive ways. And, much to our delight, she has been great to take us to wonderful craft markets and show is the inner workings of the wholesale markets in downtown Kampala.  Thanks, Damalie!