Kachimbi Thoya, Seamstress

The Bombolulu Workshop for the Handicapped, located in Mombasa, Kenya, works with some 150 disabled men and women artisans to help them overcome their physical limitations and empower them economically and socially to become fully integrated members of their communities.  Bombolulu started in 1969 as a rehabilitation project sponsored by the Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya.

The workshop trains artisans in jewelry making, weaving, woodwork and crafting to provide them with a dignified way of earning an income. Profits from the sales of its first project- copper jewelry-were used to purchase Bombolulu Gardens, a 12-acre farm on the outskirts of Mombasa that functions as an agricultural training center for the disabled. At Bombolulu, priority is given to working with the most severely disabled and to those from the poorest families.