Despite the cold drizzly weather, the Zienzele Women’s Cooperative in Mawadze showed up in good numbers!
Several of our women’s groups took important initiative during the past twenty months- when it became clear that Prisca (and obviously Nancy) would not be able to visit each village as regularly as usual, many of our basket-weaving groups established connections with local traders and were able to sell their baskets that way. Which is EXACTLY how we would hope for: women responding collectively to a challenge with flexibility and self-determination!
They clearly prefer their baskets to go with Zienzele (and to compete for prizes in the Zienzele basket show!) but under the exceptionally hard circumstances of the past year and a half, we are SO heartened to see these women take the initiative to find new opportunities.
