Scavenger Hunt: More Than A Sewing Machine

Compassion Scavenger Hunt

 

Assignment: 

Take a photo of a sewing machine.

 

Reason: 

Sewing is one of the vocational skills taught to teens in our sponsorship program.

 

 

This is a picture of my own sewing machine.  It’s a basic machine.  It can’t do many of the things a fancier machine does, but oh the impact a simple sewing machine can have. 

 In many developing countries where poverty is extreme and communities are stricken with the AIDS epidemic, women are left widowed and young girls are left orphaned.  They are unable to provide for themselves or their families.  By teaching them a simple skill such as sewing, you can change the destiny of a young girls life.  By having a skill, she can become self-sufficient.  She can make clothes for her family and sew things to sell.  She can break the cycle of poverty. 

 

A sewing machine can also change a young girls destiny in another way too.  An organization called Dress A Girl Around The World uses the craft of sewing to make dresses out of pillowcases.  The dresses are then sent to little girls in Africa.  These dresses give the appearance that the girl is being well cared for and can be a deterrent for would-be predators. 

 
We recently began a group at our church making these dresses.  We had 13 women participate in our first event and finished about 15 dresses.  We plan to continue sewing them monthly.  We don’t know if it will change that girls destiny, but it is our hope and prayer that it will.  We imagine the smile it will bring to her face as she receives what may be her very first dress.

Fun Fact:  Isaac Singer built the first commercially successful machine. It was the first sewing machine where the needle moved up and down rather than the side-to-side and used a foot treadle rather than a hand crank.  However, since Singer's machine used the same lockstitch that Elias Howe had previously patented, Singer was sued and lost.  Since he lost, Isaac Singer had to pay Elias Howe patent royalties.

For information about the contest visit: Here