Mashiah Foundation

 I’ve found another worthwhile place to spend money.

Leaving our car still with its insides scattered on the ground and no sign of the mechanics who’d promised to come back this morning, I happily went with Mary Beth to the Masiah Foundation in the Tudun Wada area of Jos.  Within huge grounds the Foundation runs a clinic, school, home for orphans and HIV positive women, sewing workshop and outlet for the handicrafts the women produce.  There are even a few geese to act as guards.

It was my first trip round a Nigerian school and I enjoyed seeing the attentive pupils in their cheerful checked uniforms.  It’s actually housed in a building that will become the expanded clinic once money has been raised to build a new school.  All of the AIDs orphans attend the school but it’s also open to the community and has expanded to about 180 pupils from 2 years old upwards.  The centrepiece is the very welcoming library.  I could have spent a long time in it and one of the problems the school has is getting the children out of the library when it’s time to go home.  There’s a good selection of games, commonplace in the UK but far rarer in Nigeria.  Many children have never come across boardgames or jigsaws until they appear in a school lesson.

The football pitch & possible site of a new school building

I was impressed by the school and delighted by the beautiful handcrafts in the shop.  Now I know where to get large beanbags, cushions, quilts and rugs when we finally get to our house at TCNN.  They even sell floppy hats but I’ll wait until it’s time for a trip to the UK before getting one of those to embarrass my children by wearing.

Each product has a label with a little of the story of the Masiah Foundation.  I’ve reproduced it below.

A poverty stricken woman with HIV received free medicine from the Masiah Foundation clinic, however one thing was still disturbing her.  She met Pastor Bayo and pleaded, “The doctor told me I have to take this medicine with food but there is no food in my house.”  Bayo handed her a few hundred naira but knew that handouts would only help for a day.  He believed there must be a way to help these women earn money to care for themselves, after all, many of them were strong and capable of earning a living if they only had skills.

Bayo had often seen his wife Mary Beth making quilts.  In 2003 he asked her to start a sewing programme for the women.  Today Women of Hope is a distinctive shop featuring the creative work of over 100 women and orphans who are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.  The women testify that earning money through creating handcrafts has given them strength and purpose to go on living.

A good place to spend money – and I even got a complementary cloth bag.