Magdalene House Expanding Reach
From today’s Tennessean:
May 8, 2008
Nashvillian whispers hope to Rwandan women
By BEVERLY KEEL
“Without drugs I couldn’t sleep. The marijuana and whiskey helped me to not think about the rapes and the beatings because of prostitution. I am so happy that you’ve come to hear about my life of sorrow….”
The letter was one of many thank-yous the Rev. Becca Stevens read after traveling with six Nashvillians to meet with 42 women in Rwanda, a country in east-central Africa that suffered war and genocide in the mid-1990s.
Stevens, 45, an Episcopal priest, is the founder of Magdalene, a place for women with a history of prostitution and drug addiction to seek shelter and start a new life. To support that work, she formed the nonprofit Thistle Farms, a bath and body products company that provides jobs, education and training to these women.
They hand-make Thistle Farms’ natural products - lotion, room spray, candles, salt scrubs and more. Sales support Magdalene, which currently has 28 residents.
The April trip to Rwanda was the first attempt at establishing a Thistle Farms model in another country.
“Seeing women in traditional African dress with goggles and rubber gloves preparing to make soap was awesome,” Stevens said. “They were so excited when we started the second morning; they had already started cleaning the equipment.
“We went to villages where women waited all day to see us. They were stunning, poised and almost whispered what they needed to tell us about their lives and their need for hope and money to keep going.”
In addition to their soap-making know-how, the Magdalene women brought vegetables and helped plant gardens.
“We went to the market and purchased shovels, seeds and sewing machines in response to some of their requests,” Stevens said.
“Sometimes it’s just a fishing pole some people need; they already know how to fish.”
The priest found faith in this wounded country that was “inspiring and a little intimidating.”
“They were so grateful that somebody in the United States thought of them and came all the way to tell them they loved them,” she said.
Stevens’ group carried letters from former Nashville prostitutes written to Rwandan women who have experienced prostitution, abuse and drug addiction.
“The sisters of Rwanda, these 42 women, wanted to start a model like Thistle Farms,” said Stevens.
“One of the people that had gone to Rwanda to live and help out was from Nashville and had heard about what we did. They approached us just to get recipes and ideas and we said we’d go to help.
“We wanted to make a connection for people that the stuff we’re dealing with locally is a global issue.
“The women we met fell in love with the message and community of Magdalene,” Stevens said.
“The stories are hauntingly familiar. Rwanda is full of people walking around with ghosts, while new life is strapped to the backs of women.
“Hearty crops are blooming next to people so poor they can’t feed their children. It was so much to take in sometimes my legs would shake or my head would bob.”
Tales are chilling
One of the most chilling aspects of her trip was the tone the women used to tell their personal tales of brutality.
“The women who had survived the genocide, when they told their story, they whispered it, like if something is really important, people say it quietly,” she said.
“It was so important to them for us to hear it that you had to lean forward to listen, it was so quiet. That undid me every time.”
Although she couldn’t understand what some of them were saying, “you could read it in the women’s faces. You could see it and hear it in the women who had been raped, beaten and abused, but there was still hope. They believed love was still possible.”
For this priest, that didn’t get lost in the translation.
“I have this renewed call about trying to love the world. I want to love the world, but I need to make sure that happens one person at a time that I encounter.”
Stevens, who has also financed, built and run a school and clinic in Ecuador, hopes this is the first of many overseas trips to help launch Thistle Farms models in other countries.
“We want to take this idea that women in the world are neighbors,” she said.
The connection between women on different continents was expressed in another letter the group received from a woman in Rwanda.
“To my Magdalene sister, I saw the letter you wrote to us. It made me love you knowing that you are now alright, that you are no longer on the streets. That made me think I can make it and make you my friend. What happened to you happened to me in ‘94 (in) the genocide war. My hope is one day I will see you in America or here in Rwanda.”
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