Sanata Women's Group

Today I spent a couple of hours at the Sanata Women's Group in Gilgil. This was set up by Mary Coulson the founder of the Restart Africa orphanage who saw an opportunity to provide employment and empowerment to the women of Gilgil in Kenya. The women already had fine needlework skills and they were trained in beadwork to work at SWG. The women make jewellery, bags, beaded leather sandals, beaded belts, screen printed bags, and flip flops. Since setting up in 2009 they have received orders from around the world from many international designers including Vivienne Westwood. Any profits will eventually go towards supporting the orphanage. The SWG are hoping to raise enough funds to buy a machine to cut the leather for the sandals, rather than handcutting them as they do now which is extremely time consuming.
I ordered a couple of pairs of flip flops and and a bag which are all being made to my design and specifications! Can't wait to pick them up next week! Pictured is Virginia who was working on my bag!