Sister Florence Muia is a Franciscan Sister of Nairobi, educated at Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois. She returned to Kenya in 2003 to open a clinic in rural Naivasha. I first visited her in 2004 and urged her to begin a craft-making group among the women who come to the clinic. Many of them walk 2 days to get there and she allows them to stay overnight and rest before walking back home. "They are already here--let them sit together and talk and work together."
Florence was not persuaded. Finally she wrote to me and said "Well, I have been thinking again. For a small donation of a few hundred dollars for materials, we'll start the craft group." Done.
When I arrived in 2005, the first thing I saw was a large group of women working under a straw gazebo in the courtyard of Upendo. They were crafting jewelry to be sold here in the U.S. to support themselves. Here they are. I burst into tears. I cry a lot.