A Herd of Elephants

SPARKING HOPE
As Carakana, we would like to show the marginalized women in our society that there is hope for them and they can do whatever they put their minds to achieve. Njeri is a mother to a girl with Cerebral Palsy, she shares her story of hope. "My name is Njeri. I have three children and one of them, Gladys, 8, has cerebral palsy. We live in Gatundu town. I worked on this pattern with elephants on it. I stitched it in seven weeks and used 25 threads to complete the piece. Taking care of Grace is hands-on so I made sure she was settled and then I gave myself time to work on the pattern. My life now compared to the past is more fulfilling because I am industrious and I have a vision of where I’d like my life to be in the future. I sell second-hand clothes and my capital came from this project and any other extra money I have is pumped into the business. My family is so impressed with this project that my children also took up cross stitching on this piece. My hope for the future is that I will be able to pay for uninterrupted education for my kids as well as enroll Gladys in a special school. I’m thankful to the Carakana project because my children are well taken care of and I consider myself employed."