Hand Embroidered South Sudanese Pillows
The Milaya Project is a non-profit working with female refugees in the world's second-largest refugee camp, Bidibidi, located in Uganda. Before the war, these milayas were used for dowries & celebrations, but now, after years of violence, they held the refugees’ last possessions.
The civil war in South Sudan has displaced more than two million people. Today, in Bidibidi, the second-largest refugee camp in the world, women continue to sew milaya. They’re hung at church on Sundays, and decorate funerals and weddings.
The Milaya Project connects South Sudanese refugees with customers who want to support the traditional art form. All profits go to helping the women’s collectives scale up their businesses.
A note about the products: each step of the milaya-making process is done in the Bidibidi refugee camp in northern Uganda. The camp varies between being extremely dusty or wet and muddy. The women work while simultaneously caring for their children and cooking. All water to wash the materials must be fetched by hand. Under these circumstances, the products may have slight imperfections.
Hand embroidered on 100% linen fabric. 19.5 x 19.5 inch (50 x 50 cm). Each product may differ slightly.