The tailoring workshop that we sup­por­ted in 2012 at the girls' boar­ding fa­ci­lity of Hou­ses of Ho­pe in Ba­ma­ko (Ma­li) is still in oper­ation to­day. How­ever, the three-year dip­lo­ma cour­se is held ex­ternal­ly.

 

In 2025, we will finance the start-up of 30 cer­ti­fied tai­lors, who will thus be able to earn an in­come for their fa­mil­ies. They will be­come ec­onom­ical­ly in­de­pen­dent and com­mit them­sel­ves – now or in the fu­tu­re – to send­ing their chil­dren to school and not ha­ving their daughters ge­nit­aly muti­lated.

 

Even though tailoring is a male-do­mina­ted pro­fes­sion in Ma­li, fe­ma­le tail­ors are be­com­ing in­creasing­ly ac­cep­ted. They can de­sign out­fits that fit with Ma­lian cus­toms and fa­mily tra­di­tions, es­pec­ial­ly for wed­dings and bap­tisms. The ba­rriers to physi­cal close­ness when ta­king measure­ments and try­ing on clothes are easy to over­come among wo­men. The young dress­ma­kers will there­fore work in wo­men's and chil­dren's fash­ion, se­wing clothes for ma­rried wo­men or ma­king school uni­forms.