Resident’s sewing skill helps girls stay in school

How could a handmade purse improve the academic achievement of middle-school girls half a world away? Villa resident Barb Hutchison found out in 2017 when a church member told her about Sew Powerful and its Purse Project. 

“These are for girls in Zambia who grow up in the slums without access to sanitary supplies, which caused them to miss a week of school each month when they’re having a period,” Barb explains.  “That’s about six weeks of school each year, so they would get behind and fail 7th grade exams at a much higher rate than boys. Then they couldn’t advance to secondary school and their educations ended.”  

Barb was stunned to learn some simple things we take for granted could affect the girls’ future so dramatically. Sew Powerful started a collective that hires local Zambian women to make reusable pads, underwear and laundry soap for the girls, then the organization recruited women globally to sew purses as packaging for the products. In 2014, about 500 purses were donated; that number is now about 52,000 each year. 

Barb quickly put her lifelong sewing skills to work in support of the project. In the past four years, she’s finished 155 bags, with 18 of them ready for her next shipment to the non-profit’s office in Washington. 

Each purse takes about five hours to create. She finds fabric among old drapes and valances at thrift stores, and purchases coordinating lightweight fabric for the linings. Barb includes a note of encouragement for each recipient. The girls receive two purses so they can give one to their mother or female caretaker.  

Barb also quilts in her spare time, a hobby she began after retirement from teaching. Sewing is her therapy, so having space to sew was a necessity when they moved to a new villa last November. She makes quilts for her kids and outfits for her great-nieces and nephews. And she still manages to squeeze in time for sewing purses. 

She’s the only local volunteer currently involved with the Purse Project. The pattern is on the website, sewpowerful.org.