American Knitter Turns Dream into Reality for Women in Rwanda
U.S. Department of State - February 28 2006
"Making beautiful things lifts the spirit and offers hope, and in Rwanda I really saw it happen," says Cari Clement, an American woman from the state of Vermont who helps African women in Rwanda rebuild their lives by providing machines they use for knitting products for export and domestic sale.
The only fact most Americans know about Rwanda is the genocide that happened there in 1994. But Clement knows it as a beautiful country with intelligent, energetic, smiling women eager to work and support themselves and their families.
Her dream of helping these women through knitting led her to develop a program called Rwanda Knits in 2003.
"The initial donation was of 60 [knitting] machines, accessories and training," she says. "These went to the refugee camps and were donated through UNHCR [Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees]. On my second trip over, in January 2004, we brought an additional 30 machines, which were donated to AVEGA [an association of widows from the genocide] and AVVAIS [an association of widows affected by AIDS]. This comprises the 90 machines, which were donated within the first year," she told the Washington File in a telephone interview.
Clement says Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy deserves much of the credit for getting her project off the ground. When she called him for a letter of support, his aide Tim Reiser mentioned that he was going to Rwanda. She suggested that Reiser go see the Rwanda Knits programs, and "he went to the refugee camp in Gihembe -- that's in Byumba province, about an hour from Kigali. And it's just destitute ... dust everywhere, no windows -- but everybody came there ready to go to work."
Reiser was so impressed that he told the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) officials with him that they should fund the program. As a result, Clement, who had been grant-writing for a year, received a $99,000 grant for Rwanda Knits. [more]
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