The Woman Behind the Sewing Machine

                                                             


Every morning in the Nyabugogo neighborhood of Kigali, the sound of sewing machines fills a tiny workshop hidden between buildings. This is where Chantal Uwase, a 34-year-old single mother of three, is changing lives not with speeches or protests, but with fabric, thread, and courage.


At first glance, Chantal’s life may seem ordinary. But what she’s built is nothing short of extraordinary.


Chantal didn’t grow up with much. After losing her parents at a young age, she dropped out of school in Senior 3 and took small jobs just to survive. Most people counted her out. But she had a gift she could sew, and she could teach. So she saved for two years and bought a second-hand machine.


That’s how Imbaraga Sewing Space was born starting with just a tarp, a table, and one goal: help other young women who felt stuck.


Today, she’s trained over 60 women, many of whom were teen mothers, school dropouts, or survivors of gender-based violence. Some have opened their own tailoring shops; others now work for big cooperatives in Kigali. Chantal doesn’t charge for training. She believes giving a woman a skill is like handing her a key out of poverty.


“I know what it feels like to be forgotten,” she says. “That’s why I try to remember every girl who walks through my door.”


She also partners with local churches and organizations to provide the girls with counseling, access to health care, and sometimes food support. And despite her own challenges raising her children alone and still living in a small rented room she shows up every day.


Chantal’s dream? To expand her workshop into a full vocational center with a daycare, so even mothers can come without worrying about their babies.


Her story isn’t one of fame or politics. It’s not on the news. But if you visit her workshop, you’ll feel it: the quiet strength of a woman who turned her pain into purpose and made sure she didn’t rise alone.

Written by Aline Niyigena 


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