“One of the ways our team served during our trip to Haiti was through providing a sewing class and supplies for some of the women in Williamson. Fabric, thread, needles, elastic, scissors, and other sewing notions were among the gracious donations, filling two large suitcases. We were expecting to teach the women how to sew one project by hand as well as another project using the new treadle sewing machines that had recently been donated to World Wide Village. When we arrived we discovered that many of the women had already taken sewing classes and knew nearly as much as our team! They were so excited when they saw all of the supplies that we had brought with us. 

Something new they wanted to learn was how to use patterns, so we taught them to make shorts from patterns drawn on paper grocery bags. They were very eager to learn and jumped right in, working well together as a team. It was fun to see how excited they got about the fact that they could use elastic instead of having to deal with zippers!

 

 

After just 4 hours with them they had completed 7 pairs of shorts as well as several other fun projects. We saw a boy proudly wearing one of the pairs of shorts the very next day!

 

 

While our time with these women was short, we felt so blessed to have the opportunity to work with them and see their eagerness to learn new skills that will in turn help them to provide for themselves and their families. They were so full of joy and their creativity was very inspiring. We can’t wait to see what they create on the new machines that will be housed in the sewing building that our team helped to complete! These amazing women encouraged us to be joyful, grateful and to use the gifts the Lord has blessed us with.”