Jasmine’s Rise

Jasmine’s Story.

Jasmine Nyangoma found out about the Paper Fig Foundation on a radio ad. She was 16 years old, living at home with her mom, and she didn’t have much to do. She couldn’t afford school fees, there were no jobs to be had, and the days all looked pretty much the same. When she heard that she could attend a 6-month tailoring program for free, she jumped at the chance. 

Jasmine met Medrine, the teacher, and started to learn the basics of sewing on the foot-powered Singer sewing machines that lined the dim room of the Paper Fig Foundation Skillss Training Center. She made friends, and they laughed together in the sunshine on their breaks between training sessions.

Jasmine was pretty good. She was a fast learner, and was making hats, dresses, and bags by the end of the term. She sewed a fitted dress and matching hat for her graduation project. And when it came time for the first annual Paper Fig Foundation Fashion Show, Jasmine was ready to strut down the dusty runway. 

The whole community turned out. There were barefoot children hiding in the tall grasses, sneaking a peek at the glamorous young women walking down the runway. There was a DJ who pumped dance hall music through the small neighborhood of Kidodo. There was a reporter from a local newspaper taking pictures. And then of course there was the crew from New York.

Laurie DeJong had produced some of the top shows at New York Fashion Week, and now she was in Kidodo, showing the women how to walk, how to pose, and how to stand tall. There were professional photographers who had snapped photos of some of the most famous models in the world, and now their eyes were trained on Jasmine and her friends. 

They walked down the runway with confidence, joy, and pride. Their designs shone, and more importantly, so did their smiles.

Jasmine didn’t want it to end.

She was part of a group of young women who decided they weren’t going to let it end. They started the Paper Fig Foundation Alumni Association as a way to stay connected to their newfound community. They were granted use of the sewing machines when classes weren’t in session, and eventually they elected a leadership team to help organize their time and initiatives. Small groups pooled their resources to rent space at local markets to sell their items.

The Alumni Association grew, and PFF established a seed lending program that started out with cash loans and evolved into fabric loans, helping members of the Alumni Association to start their own lines of clothing without any personal funding. 

Jasmine tapped into this, borrowing funds and then fabric and making sure to pay it back on time so that others would be able to use this resource as well. 

People started to notice her expertise, and she was hired by an acquaintance in Kampala to travel to the city for a month and teach sewing classes. 

There mut have been some divine intervention, because Jasmine just happened to be in Kampala when the leadership team of PFF from both New York and Kasese converged for Kampala Fashion Week. When the Area Supervisor, Edith Muhindo, mentioned to Founder Laurie DeJong and Managing Director Emily Weitz that Jasmine was in town, they insisted she come to attend Kampala Fashion Week. 

Jasmine got on a boda boda and traveled hours across the congested streets of Kampala to join the team at Kampala Fashion Week, and she was amazed by the behind-the-scenes insight she got by watching the designers, models, and crew work together to put on such a high-level event. By the time she took a boda boda home, she had seen possibilities she had never imagined.

As the Paper Fig Skills Training program continued to grow, the two teachers, Medrine and Dirian, found the class sizes were getting unwieldy. They needed another teacher to help ensure that all students got the attention they required to learn. Jasmine applied for the job, and she got it. Now, Jasmine receives an annual salary and is a full-time sewing teacher at the Paper Fig Foundation. She is a model of success for the students she teaches, and she brings a positive and bright energy to Paper Fig Foundation every day.