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Local sale of colourful quilt bags helps to support poor families in Uganda

For several years Hilda Hopp has been helping poor women in Uganda by selling the bags they make.
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Florence Nangobi Nakisige, one of more than 30 members of the Mukwano Women’s Group in Bujagali Falls, Uganda who make colourful quilted bags to sell as a way to support their families. Photo submitted

For several years now Hilda Hopp has been helping poor women in Uganda by quietly selling the colourful quilted cloth bags they make.

She recently received a shipment of 40 bags and they are going fast, Hopp said.

She started importing and selling the bags in the summer of 2015 when she decided to buy a few of the bags for herself as gifts.

So far she has sold about 300 of the bags at $25 a piece and sent all of the proceeds directly back to the women’s collective she works with in Uganda.

“I just sent them $1,000,” Hopp said.

The women make the bags on treadle sewing machines and are always looking for donations of these human-powered machines, Hopp added.

The bags are created by the Mukwano Women’s Group in Bujagali Falls, Uganda which lies at the source of the Nile River, reports Pat McGill, who visits Bujagali as a volunteer involved with primary school improvements in the region and initiated the international sale of the bags.

McGill said the region is impoverished as are many other areas of Uganda.

The women’s craft co-operative was originally formed to make products to sell to tourists who come to the area to go whitewater rafting on the Nile’s class 5 rapids.

The co-operative was doing quite well until a dam to supply electricity was built on the Nile which created a water entrapment area that reduced rafting in the region by about 50 per cent.

The remaining portion of the rapids are scheduled to be lost this year when another dam will eliminate the last of the rapids on this portion of the river, McGill reports.

With this economic crisis, McGill said Florence Nangobi Nakisige asked him if he could help the co-operative with finding other markets for their bags. There are more than 30 women in the co-operative depending on the sale of the bags for their livelihood.

He said he buys the bags directly from the co-operative with no one in the middle taking profit.

In a country where the average labourer makes $2 a day he said the approximately $11 the women receive for each bag, makes a big difference in their lives.

“The women are grateful to be able to earn the money and use it for school fees, medicines and other necessities for their children,” McGill said, adding that Malaria is a life threatening problem in the region.

After his expenses McGill said he was able to return $4,400 to the co-operative in 2015 and 2016.

People interested in purchasing a bag from Hopp can contact her at 250-392-7827.

People interested in learning more about the project can also contact Pat McGill by email at KPMcGill1@gmail.com.