Four women from the Chisomo Tailoring Club in Malawi, standing and holding skirts and dresses made by them in the tailoring club.

Our lives have not been the same since. We are now able to provide for our children and save to grow our businesses.

— Stella Pasula

1 mins read time
Published: 22nd January 2026
Blog by Melissa Cooke

Tags:

Chisomo tailoring club empowers survivors of GBV

The Chisomo Tailoring Club is a five-member group that is inspiring many people in Traditional Authority Nkhulambe in Phalombe district in Malawi with their remarkable resilience and hardworking spirit after surviving various forms of gender based violence (GBV).

“We underwent a three-month training in tailoring and were provided with a sewing machine for the five of us to be using, and a starter material such as cloth and needles."

— Stella Pasula

As one step to end and prevent GBV, Oxfam in Malawi and our partner, The Centre for Alternatives for Victimised Women and Children, as part of the Irish Aid Ireland Civil Society Partnership project (ICSP), are training survivors of GBV in various skills such as tailoring, soap making, and petroleum jelly production. This initiative aims to empower survivors financially.

“We meet three times a week to sew clothes and make plans to grow our business. Our goal is to save enough money from the profits we make so that each of us can buy our own sewing machine.”

— says Stella.