Anastaciah Wangeci Maina

Anastaciah Wangeci Maina is one of the seamstresses in our Enkiteng Program in Nyeri. She joined the sewing program in summer 2015 and started learning how to sew by making Enkiteng bags (cloth gift wrapping bags) using donated fabric. She has now graduated to making the Enkiteng bags out of Kitenge fabric, as well as new products such as Kitenge knapsacks, shopping bags, wrap-skirts, aprons, face masks and other products made of Kitenge.

Anastaciah lives in Kandara, Nyeri County, Kenya, with her husband and their children. She did not have the opportunity to enter high school due to a separated family, finances and traditional customs. Due to her lack of education, she has not had the opportunity to gain many skills.

In addition to the income she gets from the Enkiteng Program, she does laundry and housework in her community in order to make additional income. Through the Seeds to Sew program, she has learned a number of business skills. While she plans to continue to grow her family, she would like to open a secondhand store downtown. She hopes to provide her children with a better life than she had. Currently, they live in a rental, she would like to save up money to buy land and build a nice house for the family to live in.