Meet Aloyo Concy

Meet Aloyo Concy, one of our best tailors. She joined One Mango Tree in 2008, when we sponsored a training in Unyama Camp, and internal displacement camp on the outskirts of Gulu. Concy has a great smile, and loves to laugh. She's totally serious about her work - at our first workshop, Concy pulled her sewing machine onto veranda every day so that she could have total focus on her work, quietly humming to herself while she churned out Market Totes all day long.

Concy's intense focus is because of her daughters - keeping them all in school and making sure they have a comfortable and safe environment to come home to. She hopes to save enough money from her work at One Mango Tree to buy land and build her own home.

Check out the tag on your One Mango Tree product - did Concy make your bag?

 

For more photos from our visit to Concy's place, check out her album on Facebook.

Sending thoughts to Awoto Margret

Please keep Awoto Margret and her family in your hearts this week - she lost her husband, Opiyo. Awoto Margret is the 'grandma' of One Mango Tree, always helping Alice with looking after the little ones. She is in charge of packaging - doing a final once-over on our products and making sure each product has a signed hangtag before it's placed in a poly bag and boxed for Kampala. Here are some beautiful shots of Margret and Opiyo at their home taken last month.

We will miss you Opiyo!

Meet Akello Pamela

In fall 2009, after Stacey Edgar of Global Girlfriend visited our project, we received our largest handbag order to date. We knew we were going to need more tailors to get things done. We'd brought all of our tailors under one roof in June 2009, but the ladies from Bobi and Unyama camps weren't quite ready to make our more complicated purse designs to the level of quality we needed. One day after work, Lucy and I were talking about our predicament, discussing our options.

The next morning was a rainy one, and I knew Gulu would be in a standstill. With most people traveling on foot or by bicycle, very little happens on rainy weekday mornings. I took my time waking up, made some coffee and unlocked the workshop door. I was headed to the office with my laptop bag, but out of the corner of my eye I saw three ladies huddled on the front porch.

One of them, Akello Pamela, had her little daughter nestled on her lap.

All three women were wrapped in woolen scarves, shivering in the cool Gulu rain. I smiled and greeted them all, and quickly realized that none of them spoke English. I had no idea why they were there. Suddenly my phone rang - it was Prisca. She apologized for being late to work (Prisca rides her bicycle several miles to get to work each day), and asked if any of the ladies had yet arrived. I glanced at the three women on the porch - they avoided my eyes.

"Um, yes, there are three ladies I've never met - none of them speak English. I think they've been sitting on our porch for some time. Do you know anything about this?" I asked.

"Ahhh, sorry," Prisca laughed her short, now famous laugh. "Those must be the new ladies Lucy found - they are already tailors and they can sew well - they can help us with our order. I am coming Halle, let me come."

Pamela quickly became one of our best tailors, bringing her daughter Maria to work everyday on her bicycle. Shortly after starting work with One Mango Tree, she invited me to visit her family in the village, Awac.

Awac is only a short drive from Gulu town, but during the height of conflict in Northern Uganda, the insecurity caused Pamela's family to flee to town for safety. She lost brothers and uncles in the fighting and her family lost their livestock, which had been the base of their livelihood. After 21 years away, Pamela's family returned to their land. She stayed behind and began working for One Mango Tree, saving money for her own future and sending it to the village to help her family.

To learn more about Pamela, check out past stories here and here.
See more beautiful photos of Akello Pamela and Maria on our Facebook page.

Meet Adong Kevin

When you visit the One Mango Tree workshop in Gulu, Adong Kevin is sure to be your language teacher. Her approach for teaching Acholi-as-a-second-language? She continuously speaks to you in Acholi until you get it. I once spent an afternoon cooking chicken and malakwang with Kevin and Prisca. They decided not to speak English with me the entire day - several hours later, I'd figured out how to communicate that 1) no, I wasn't going to break the chicken's neck, and 2) I was really sorry for how bad I was at cooking _______(fill in the blank with any Acholi food item).
 

Kevin started out with One Mango Tree in the very early days - easily one of Mama Lucy's favorites. She was always on time for work, and after opening the stall doors, her next step was always to crank up the radio. When Julie Carney, Director of Gardens for Health in Rwanda, worked with One Mango Tree for two months, she and Kevin became fast friends - when Kevin's first child was born a couple of years ago, she named her Aber Juliet. She's a strong and sassy little girl, and with a smile just like her mom's. She often spends afternoons chasing Anena Betty's son, Obama, around the compound.

See the rest of the photos from our visit to Kevin's home here.

When promotions came around this summer, Kevin was an obvious choice - she still occasionally stitches handbags, but most of the time you can find her checking the work of the other tailors. She's in charge of quality control, making sure that the women are following guidelines for quality and consistency in their work. Kevin and her husband rent a tukul in Gulu town, but she's saving for land and a house of her own. She's proud that she doesn't have to ask her husband for money - with her salary, she can easily buy food and clothes, and take family members to the hospital without having to worry.

Meet Prisca

Photos taken by Nicole Daniels and cross-posted from Storm the Mighty.

Prisca also works at One Mango Tree's Gulu workshop - in fact, she runs the show. We were able to visit her home with Jenn and Kaben, an American couple who lives and works at the One Mango Tree compound in Gulu. I wish I had more photos of Prisca to share with you but she hid in the kitchen cooking for us the entire time. We went outside and played with all of the neighborhood kids, who love to spend time at Prisca and Charles house (especially now that they have electricity and a TV!).

Prisca was so sweet, it was about to downpour and she offered to let all five of us stay with her and her family for the night. Maybe an offer we should’ve taken her up on. We all drove home in the pouring rain, in the dark, over the worst potholes on a dirt (mud) road with lightening on motorcycles. Boda Brad drove both me and my friend Joelle on his bike and Kaben and Jenn were on another. I was sandwiched between Brad swearing up a storm and Joelle praying out loud behind me. Definitely one of my most memorable days in Gulu!

Check out some photos of Prisca and her family, below.

Cynthia, Prisca's daughter

Isaac, Prisca's son (left) and the kids crowd Charles, Prisca's husband (right)

Prisca, standing next to the dish-drying rack in her compound

Meet Monica

Cross-posted from Storm the Mighty, from their recent visit to One Mango Tree in Gulu.

During our week long stay with One Mango Tree we were able to visit the homes of three of the seamstresses. Our first stop was to see Adokorach Monica and her sweet boys. We sat under a tree outside of her home. The dirt path was perfectly swept, I didn’t want to walk anywhere and ruin it. Favorite moment of the day: one of the boys saw that I was excited to see the chickens and he made a crazy chicken call and they came running to him! It was a beautiful moment - I’m still working on my chicken call!

Storm the Mighty visits One Mango Tree

Cross-posted from Storm the Mighty, by Brad and Nici Daniels

One Mango Tree. A “social entrepreneurship” aiming to provide opportunity and rehabilitation for women who were victimized by the LRA. The LRA or “Lord’s Resistance Army” is a group of rebels and are responsible for Africa’s longest running armed conflict. Led by Joseph Kony, the group has terrorized East Africa causing over 2 million people to be displaced from their homes and live in military guarded refugee camps.

“One Mango Tree uses a fair trade model to provide income generating opportunities for women in impoverished and conflict-ridden areas of the globe.”

We were so excited to arrive in Gulu, Uganda to see first hand the work of One Mango Tree and these amazing women! They were so sweet and so welcoming… and did I mention talented? You can order some of their products here at their online shop.

These two lovely Mzungus (white folk) are Jenn and Kaela! We stayed with Jenn, her husband Kaben and Kaela while we were in Gulu and did not want to leave them at the end of the week! Miss you guys ;)

One Mango Tree also provides a financial class for the women to teach them to budget, save and manage their money.

And here they are… the ladies of One Mango Tree! When you make a purchase, you’ll be given a tag with the name of the woman that made that item and you can find her photo on the website!

Keep your eyes out for these new fall bags from One Mango!

Josephine, Claire & Pamela

Swamped. Underwater. Drowning in purses.

In fall 2009, after Stacey Edgar visited our project, we received our largest handbag order to date. We knew we were going to need more tailors to get things done. We'd brought all of our tailors under one roof in June 2009, but the ladies from Bobi and Unyama camps weren't quite ready to make our more complicated purse designs to the level of quality we needed. One day after work, Lucy and I were talking about our predicament, discussing our options.

The next morning was a rainy one, and I knew Gulu would be in a standstill. With most people traveling on foot or by bicycle, very little happens on rainy weekday mornings. I took my time waking up, made some coffee and unlocked the workshop door. I was headed to the office with my laptop bag, but out of the corner of my eye I saw three ladies huddled on the front porch.

Aol Josephine. Lajaro Claire. Akello Pamela.

Lajaro Claire lounges on the front porch with one of Aber Grace's daughters

All three women were wrapped in woolen scarves, shivering in the cool Gulu rain. Pamela and Josephine were nursing their babies. I smiled and greeted them all, and quickly realized that none of them spoke English. I had no idea why they were there. Suddenly my phone rang - it was Prisca. She apologized for being late to work (Prisca rides her bicycle several miles to get to work each day), and asked if any of the ladies had yet arrived. I glanced at the three women on the porch - they avoided my eyes.

Aol Josephine's adorable Jonathon

"Um, yes, there are three ladies I've never met - none of them speak English. I think they've been sitting on our porch for some time. Do you know anything about this?" I asked.

"Ahhh, sorry," Prisca laughed her short, now famous laugh. "Those must be the new ladies Lucy found - they are already tailors and they can sew well - they can help us with our order. I am coming Halle, let me come."

Pamela, Josephine and Claire would come to be a steady force within One Mango Tree. After just a few days of work, it was as if they'd always been with us. They made fast friends with the other women, and set an example with their punctuality, concentration, and consistent quality of work. Pamela's daughter Maria was terrified of mzungus (white people), and screamed bloody murder anytime I came near her. I enjoyed her cuteness from afar - Pamela always beaded her hair and tied a teddy bear to her back in the same way women carry their babies in Uganda. Eventually her fear dissipated, and she even started to shake my hand.

Pamela comforting Maria after a mzungu encounter

Josephine brought Jonathon to work every day, in a comfy cocoon on her back, swaddled with a piece of cloth. He quietly looked around the room, rarely making a peep, and always content for a nap after his feedings.

Josephine working with sleeping Jonathon on her back

This was all before Alice, our daycare teacher, and Maria is now in nursery school full time. Adong Kevin's daughter, Aber Juliet, has taken over the sassy "mzungus-are-going-to-eat-me" role. When I was in Gulu last month, Josephine and Claire were both pregnant, and getting close to their delivery dates - both the perfect picture of healthy mothers.

When I was looking through photos to use for the new blog design, one of Claire and Josephine - back when they first started with us and were working away diligently on that huge order - seemed the perfect choice.

Check out this great photo of Josephine, Claire and Pamela in traditional Acholi dress.

Photos in this post were taken by Crystaline Randazzo during her time at One Mango Tree with Momenta Workshops.

xo Halle

The proof is in the matooke

Cross-posted from OMT Founder Halle Butvin's personal blog, Locus Amoenus

Dinner at Prisca's has become a routine for One Mango Tree visitors and interns. The first time you go, she'll cook for you - after that, it's time to pitch in. International Women's Day is a national holiday in Uganda, so we accepted the invitation to lunch at Prisca's, knowing full well that we'd be put to work as soon as we arrived. We headed straight into the family kitchen tukul, the last evidence of the traditional grass-thatched housing on Prisca's property.

inside Prisca's kitchen

Kaela got to work cutting matooke, while Martina and I provided moral support. Cutting matooke is a much harder job than it seems, as the tough green bananas don't peel like the familiar yellow ones, and they ooze a sticky sap.

Prisca & Kaela peel matooke for lunch

Before we arrived, Prisca had already made her now-famous fried chicken, dodo with simsim (greens with ground sesame paste), and sweet potatoes. With the boiled matooke, we had a ladies-only feast. We filed out of the kitchen and into the two-room brick house where Prisca's family currently lives.

watching Al-Jazeera, drinking refrigerated sodas

The living room got a fresh coat of robin's-egg-blue paint over the holidays, and Charles (Prisca's husband) connected the house to the Gulu electric lines. We watched Al-Jazeera on their little TV, and Prisca commented on Qaddafi and what she thought might happen with the conflict in Libya. The new chest refrigerator hummed in the corner, and Prisca presented us with a selection of cold sodas.

success doesn't come to you... you go to it

What seem to be normal, mundane details of a ladies lunch are actually quite extraordinary. When I started One Mango Tree, I wanted to see quick results - big changes in the tailors' lives, and fast. I'm learning that fair trade's proof comes with time - sustained, regular income is what moves people out of the poverty trap, and for good. Charles only works sporadically on construction projects - Prisca is the family breadwinner. Through careful savings and budgeting, the incremental improvements she's made have translated into big changes for her family.

the front door of the new family home

In between the kitchen tukul and the two-room home, Prisca and Charles built a large brick home. She used her 2010 savings to put in the roof, floor and window casings. Even while building their home, Prisca and Charles are now able to make spending decisions based on comfort, not necessity. Their family crowds the TV each evening to watch the news and local programs (Prisca loves the Spanish telenovelas dubbed into English - they are a big hit here). They have meat for dinner almost every night, and usually invite friends and family to join in the feast. Prisca cuts up cold pineapple as a treat for the kids when they come in from playing after school. Even the matooke we ate is telling - it's a cuisine choice from southern Uganda, and very expensive to buy in Gulu. It's one of Prisca's favorite treats - one she can now easily afford.