Teaching women in rural areas throughout Africa how to build their own business is key to building communities and increasing economic empowerment. With this spirit in mind, The Chikumbuso Project in Zambia encourages widows in Lusaka, the country’s capital, to collect plastic bags in collection depots placed around the city.

These plastic bags are made into gorgeous handbags and purses that are for sale locally and in the United States. Founder Linda Wilkinson had no idea what Chikumbuso would become when she started the project in 2005, telling me, “I went to help one woman and was greeted by three others needing help. I wasn’t really sure what to do but we decided to meet the next Wednesday afternoon — it was literally a ‘stepping out’.”

After the initial meetings, Wilkinson met with more women, and together they tried a variety of micro enterprises that didn’t quite work out. It wasn’t until the women incorporated the idea of recycling that things started coming together.

According to Wilkinson: “It only cost us a pair of scissors and a crochet hook” to get the project going. She didn’t stop there.

A few months into the program, she noticed that none of the children of the widows participating in the project were going to school. That encouraged her and the rest of the team at Chikumbuso to turn what used to be a bar into a community center, and to build a school that started with 30 children and has now grown to over 300.

The best part? The entire school is free.

Through the implementation of a tailoring course for single moms and widows, a grandmother support group, and a feeding program, the team at Chikumbuso is able to cover a variety of aspects to make the project run successfully. The local Zambian woman participate on every level: six widows are bankers that handle sales, pay out salaries, and make and collect micro-loans.

Another group of widows serve as the community leaders — they help out in times of desperate need, go into the community to visit sick neighbors, and assess ways in which Chikumbuso can be a ‘light’ for the rest of the community, Ng’ombe.

“The women saw a big need for trash pick-up,” Wilkinson says. “So, our Christmas gift to Ng’ombe was a ‘Clean Up Day’. All our students and teachers worked with local police to clean up the compound and haul away debris.”

Thy still face challenges on a daily basis, despite the impact of Chikumbuso. Common in the world of NGOs, there is a lack of everything — money, education, nutrition — accompanied with a pervasive feeling that things can’t change. But, although this might deter some, it encourages Wilkinson: “For Chikumbuso, it just came down to doing a little at a time, and bit by bit those challenges became less powerful.”

There are several ways to empower the wonderful work the women at Chikumbuso Project are doing:

–Donate online at www.chikumbuso.com
–Purchase the unique bags and bracelets
–Sponsor a widow or a grandmother
–Perhaps the best option of all: Take a trip to Zambia, tour the project, and become inspired to do something new and exciting to make a change

Jos Dirkx has lived on five continents and currently resides in South Africa. Her passion for social justice and gender equality has propelled her participation in projects, debates, fund-raising and campaigning for increased public awareness of women’s rights, and her hands-on experience with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Sudan has furthered her dedication to making social justice and gender equality a worldwide priority. Read her HV archive here.