Meet Jacinta
Jacinta Mukolwe lives and works in Arusha, Tanzania. She started a sewing group for young at-risk mothers in her community to teach them a skill that they could use to support their young children, as well as core life skills they missed as a child. Loom heard about her initiative and sat down with her to learn more about it. She talked of the excitement of providing the girls with a tangible skill that was changing their lives as well as teaching them their worth and rebuilding their identity, but she also felt stuck.
Her strength was in pursuing relationships with the girls and providing training but she wasn’t versed in systems, in how to create a budget, how to track finances and wages. She needed to find a sustainable market for the girls to enter after they graduated from the program.
Loom worked with Jacinta to set up a simple budget and book-keeping system that was suitable for her context and easy to manage. We provided her training through our Celebrating Children Workshop where she learnt more about how to work with at-risk youth, and business training to help her scale up. Then, we helped her raise the funds to open The Second Chance, a storefront where graduates can work sewing school uniforms and other handmade items. It’s simple. Jacinta lived and worked in Arusha. The young mothers came to her because she was already a beacon of hope in her community. She listened. She understood the problem. She acted to bring a solution.
Loom, in turn, saw what Jacinta was good at, what she was already doing and listened to what she needed to achieve greater sustainability. As we continue to share her story with others, we create a greater network of relationships—providing a way for others to learn about her ministry and see how they can partner with her.
This is just one way Loom works with Social Innovators.