Music, Dance and Drama
The music, dance and drama group is one of the different groups in Rukararwe. The group gives the women the possibility to be creative in a group and work together in a group of friends to train and perform their traditional dances. They perform for example when visitors are coming to Rukararwe to give them insight into their culture.
Crafts against Poverty
Crafts Against Poverty is a project of our NGO RPWRD (Rukararwe Partnership Workshop for Rural Development). The Idea is to find women who are producing different crafts to earn an income and to achieve several skills such as working in a group, running a business and communicating. Another project aim is to give them the chance to learn more about their environment, recycling, their community, intercultural issues, independence and sustainability.
Every woman makes her own crafts and decides about the price, but they have agreed about the prices of many common products. Also, the woman marks her crafts with her name. When the article is sold, the woman gets 90% of the price, 10% is for the shop and the group for administration purposes or projects about which the group decides independently.
Project History
The CAP-Project started as a joint venture programme of the two Ugandan NGO’s YSA (Youth Social Work Association) and RPWRD (Rukararwe Partnership Workshop of Rural Development). The idea was to establish several groups of women who were supposed to produce crafts to earn an income and to acquire different skills as mentioned above. In September 2010 the initiators of CAP started the project with an information day at Rukararwe. All interested women in the area were welcome and by the end of the day, 33 of them filled their entry forms to become members of the CAP group.
During the years the CAP-Group kept increasing, by now more than 50 women belong to the group. Also in Kampala, Ntinda, a group was established. Concerning the facilities there, this group consisted of only two women for a start. In some workshops, these women groups learned about communication and business skills and also how to produce a mosquito repellent cream, the “skin smoother”. Also, a sales office for the cream was opened in Soroti, the region with the highest rates of malaria infections within Uganda.
After some months and workshops, a group of ~15 women started to meet regularly at Rukararwe to produce cream, to learn how to make other crafts, to discuss and to try on their own ideas. The Kampala group continued their work until summer 2011 when the group dispersed. Because the sales in Soroti did not go too well and also product transport was a problem the sales office was closed again after a rather short time of trial.
By now only the Rukararwe group is still existent, training new women and successfully working on new and old products. You can check some of them out on this homepage and contact us any time for more information!
Products
Paper beads
When the CAP project started, the women learned how to use old papers like calendars and advertisements to produce beads for different types of jewellery such as Necklaces, Bracelets and Earrings.
The quality improved a lot with time and today you can’t even realize that they are made out of paper. We also varnish them which makes them water-resistant, shiny and durable. Due to the years, the woman started to make also other jewellery made of various raw materials like glass beads, seeds or wool.
There is a big variety of different forms and colours to be admired in our shop on Rukararwe grounds. Just come and pay us a visit or send us an email to order your very own paper necklace!
Bags
Many of the women have tailoring skills. So we are selling a big variety of bags from small handbags and normal shoulder bags to padded laptop rucksacks. Some of the women are even designing their very own fashions of bags. All of these products have a high quality and are made of typical African fabrics, called Kitenge, with their colourful and individual patterns. Some others are made with different materials. We are sure that we have a bag and a fabric for everyone, so pay us a visit and take your time to look around.
Baskets
The culture of the Ankole kingdom uses various types of baskets for many purposes as welcoming visitors, use at parties, weddings or just in the daily work. As a result, the women are really used in making baskets and the quality of them corresponds. So check our shop to find out about the different kinds of baskets all made of papyrus grasses which are growing in big amounts in the surrounding swamps.
Other Crafts
Due to the years, the group established a wide range of different handicrafts. We do both, integrating new creative ideas of the members and adding nice additions which we find somewhere. If we do the last thing we normally improve them. Some of the other crafts include Postcards, placemats, balls, traditional rattles and many more. If you are interested to see what we really have you can check our catalogue here.
We are welcoming you!
Why don’t you pay us a visit in our hut on Rukararwe Grounds?
If you are interested in ordering some of our Crafts for your shop, please contact us.
You can get what we have or make a special order.
Phone:
Abby Ayebaze – Project Coordinator: +256 (0) 700627227
E-Mail: