Before Mahnaz left Afghanistan with her husband and four sons,
she carefully packed beautiful black, red and white curtains in the few
suitcases she could bring along to her new life in a country 7,000 miles away.
They would be something familiar from her native land once she
was surrounded by strangers whose language she didn’t speak. But to her dismay,
the curtains didn’t fit the windows of her new home in Fredericksburg when she
arrived a few months ago.
“The curtains were special to me because I thought I might not be
able to find them here,” Mahnaz said, speaking in Dari through an interpreter.
In Afghanistan, she could have easily made new curtains on one of
the three sewing machines she owned — one a gift from her mother, another from
her mother-in-law, and the third a wedding present. So when Mahnaz heard that
the Catholic Charities Office of Migration and Refugee Services had distributed
donated sewing machines to 14 women and one man last year, she hoped for one of
her own.
At the end of April, Mahnaz and nine other women studying English
at the Fredericksburg office of Catholic Charities received sewing machines. Now
they can sew for themselves and sew items to sell at craft fairs.
Many of the women, whose names have been changed for security
reasons, are in the United States on special immigrant visas for the families
of Afghan interpreters whose lives were in danger because they served the U.S.
embassy or military.
Pequitte Schwerin, a parishioner of St. Francis of Assisi Church
in Triangle and a volunteer with the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, came up with the
idea in July 2015. Parishioners at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church
in Fredericksburg and St. Francis of Assisi donated many of the machines after
Schwerin placed ads in church bulletins.
“I’ve been a sewer since I was 8 or 9,” said Schwerin. “My mom
taught me, and I know a lot of these ladies come with a lot of creative
talent.”
She hoped the machines would help the women, most of whom have
never worked outside the home, supplement their income and build their
self-esteem.
“I really believe in these women and I want them to feel good
about the beautiful things they make,” Schwerin said.
Unlike Mahnaz, the majority of women are used to sewing by hand,
not on a machine. After one basic lesson, the first group taught themselves enough
to sew clothes — without patterns. The lone man in the group found a job as a
tailor, while the women formed a group, Love 2 Sew, and began selling makeup
bags, purses, duvet covers and quilts at farmer’s markets.
“We knew these women had these skills but we had no idea to what
extent,” said Laurel Collins, associate director of the Fredericksburg office.
The second group of women gathered April 27 for a basic lesson on
the machines. It was a challenging process because some of the machines did not
have manuals. Mahnaz, working with an antique black Singer machine, wound
thread around a hook and then looped it around downward into a smaller loop.
Fariba, a mother of seven, worked on a more modern machine that made a gentle
whirring noise.
After some time spent turning knobs and pushing buttons, she took
a break. She said she was planning to make “a thousand things … for myself and
kids as well.” She’ll start out with pillow and mattress covers.
As for Mahnaz, “I need to make curtains for my home.”
Find out more
To donate a machine, email [email protected] or call 703/590-8492.
