News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
A Monterey couple has hand sewn at least 100 dresses and 100 pairs of shorts for children in Uganda.
Martha and Roy Vetitoe worked together some six months on the dresses for girls and shorts for boys. Martha Vetitoe said she got the idea reading about the Little Dresses For Africa program in a magazine. She said she and her husband were looking for some charity work they could do from home.
“I’ve been sewing since I was 8 years old, and then I taught my husband,” Vetitoe said. I think he was already in his 60s. He really didn’t want anyone to know at the time, but now it gives him great joy to know he can contribute to ministries this way.”
Roy Vetitoe said his goal is to do at least 1,000 dresses before he reaches 90. He is currently 87 years old. The couple also made 800 reusable sanitation pads for the girls.
“We had wanted a ministry we could both do, because we’re both elderly and cannot do the heavy things we once did for all the churches and missions and so forth,” Martha Vetitoe said.
Martha Vetitoe said they had never taken on such a large-scale project before.
“We’re not doing this to bring attention to ourselves,” Martha Vetitoe said. “We did not do that for anything except to give these little girls dignity and to honor our lord Jesus Christ in our ministry that we are able to do now.”
Roy Vetitoe said he hopes any attention they are getting inspires others.
“Other groups can do this, because when I talked to the lady last time she said ‘honey, we never run out of little girls,” Martha said.
Martha Vetitoe said after the clothes were done she sent them to Little Dresses For Africa where they were distributed in Uganda. Little Dresses For Africa has sent clothes to 47 countries in Africa. They have also sent clothes to Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, The Dominican Republic, The Philippines, and Cambodia.
