Two women, fire, flooding, and now silence

An email arrived the way so many of our connections do. Someone knew someone, who knew someone, who knew The Off Ramp and Threads by Nomad. A physician’s assistant working in Southeast Asia had met two women with real sewing and embroidery skills, and she wanted to introduce us.

Priscilla and Mary live in a place shaped by guerrilla warfare. They have been displaced more times than we can count.

Mary has embroidery skills. She has embroidered the labels for our women's clergy robes and stitched kitchen towels with careful, precise work. She needed help selecting the right fabrics and getting some initial supplies in place, and we were glad to provide that.

Priscilla sews. She needed equipment, so we purchased a sewing machine and a serger for her. Then came months of work over Zoom as we taught her to make clergy stoles and yoga mat carriers. That process was interrupted twice, once when her village was set on fire, and once by flooding. Both times, she picked her work back up.

She was good at it, too. Her first set of stoles arrived in Atlanta while we were selling at a conference, and most of them sold before we even had time to iron them or attach labels. We sent for more. Her yoga mat carriers, made from a local weave and batik fabric sourced nearby, became popular as well. At another event, we sold through most of her stoles again. We were ready to place a third order.

Then we learned Priscilla had been displaced once more, this time due to guerrilla violence and to a region without phone or internet access. Unlike the two times before, we haven't been able to reach her since. Her income has stopped. Mary, who had been leaning on Priscilla's guidance for fabric and design choices, lost that support too. We're staying in touch with Mary through shared photos over email, doing what we can to help her keep moving forward, but we don't know when, or if, we'll hear from Priscilla again.

Their story is a picture of how much promise can build in a short time

And how quickly displacement can interrupt it.

It's also a picture of how much a small gift can matter. Three dollars covers a yard of fabric for a seamstress like Mary. Thirty dollars covers a set of assorted supplies to keep her work moving. These are not large amounts, but they are the difference between a stalled project and one that keeps going.

We're a little over two weeks into our campaign to raise $7,000, and we've now reached $5,255. We are so close, and every gift from here brings us nearer to being able to support women like Priscilla and Mary the way they deserve.

We would be so grateful for your support.

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