In early 2006, while visiting Burundi to explore the idea of quilt making as healing art, Carolann Palmer and Patty Federighi were invited to visit Friends in the Democratic Republic of Congo. When the tour reached Abeca, where the Congo Yearly Meeting (CYM) annual sessions were to take place, Carolann and Patty were in for a surprise.

As they approached the reception area, the women leaders of CYM came running to greet Carolann and Patty and threw their arms around them. It seems the Congolese receive few visiting Friends, and very rarely are they women. They were so very excited to have women visitors.

After the reception ceremony Patty and Carolann met with the CYM Friends Women leaders and learned of their special challenges living in this war-torn area.

The Congolese asked Patty and Carolann to take their story back to Northwest Yearly Meeting and ask the women there to pray for them. This began a relationship between the women of the two yearly meetings.

Northwest has helped to refurbish and resupply a women’s workshop in Abeca that had been damaged and looted in the war. And Peace Through Pieces trained two women from Congo in quilt making at the 2008 THARS school of quilt making.

New for 2009—The next THARS school of quilt making will take place at the new Peace Center in Uvira in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

THARS will send trauma healing listening trainers and Peace Through Pieces will provide quilting training to women of Congo Yearly Meeting. This will allow the Yearly Meeting to be a resource for healing and reconciliation for its communities and an outreach for peace.

Fundraising is going on now to help make this workshop come about. Please see “You Can Help” on this page.