Argentine 
When standing upright, supported by two crutches and huge metal leg braces, Argentine is a tiny woman reaching no more than four and a half feet. Yet this tiny woman has overcome towering obstacles, growing up with polio in a rural village at the heart of the ongoing fighting in Eastern Congo.
As a child she lost the use of her legs, and was never able to attend school. As the war in Eastern Congo grew worse and worse, her mother was left with the weight of an incredible question. How could she protect her young disabled daughter from the armed men who would sometimes invade their town? Even young children growing up in Eastern Congo learn to flee. But what do you do with a daughter whose legs can't carry her across the room, much less out of danger? With five younger children to think about as well, and no money to move to a safer area, Argentine's mother was often forced to carry Argentine into the woods and hide her there, returning at night to sleep with her under the brush. To this day, Argentine tells this story and marvels at the love of her mother, and the faithfulness of a God who has carried her so far.
Today, Argentine is able to live independently and support herself in relative safety, through the work of her own hands. This is an incredible accomplishment for any young woman in Eastern Congo, and even greater for a disabled woman. She is also paying school fees for her younger siblings, helping to build a home for her family, and learning to read and write through her SHONA income. Each item that she sews makes all of this possible. And she has so many more plans.
When you pass by the workshop, you may not be able to see her small frame through the window. But you will undoubtedly know she is there. As you walk down the street, you can always hear the whir of her sewing machine and rising above it all, the hope of her songs.
Mapendo'sname means love. She is a steady and understated young woman, but when you look at the choices this young woman has made, it doesn't take long to realize how perfectly her name fits her.
Mapendo is the youngest child in her family. When she was 12 years old she fell and broke her leg in two places. Her family lived in a rural area and was unable to take her to a hospital for treatment. The leg was set by a traditional medicine doctor, but it healed very badly and she became unable to use the leg at all. Years later she was taken to a handicapped center, where she faced a serious operation and years of therapy. Eventually her leg was fitted with a metal brace and she can now walk with the use of a brace and a cane. Mapendo has a strong upper body, which has made her a particularly talented seamstress, and also a star member of the women's handicapped sports team in Goma. Yet despite her success, Mapendo never forgets others. Although she is much stronger physically than Argentine, the two young women are inseparable, with Mapendo often carrying Argentine's bag to help her on her way.
Mapendo's childhood home was destroyed by the ongoing war in Eastern Congo and her mother had been living in a refugee camp. As the youngest child in her family, and a disabled young woman, Mapendo could easily have left her mother's living situation in her older siblings hands. But seeing that they were able to do little, Mapendo did it herself. She saved her income from SHONA and literally built her mother a house so that she could leave the camps. It is not a perfect house, but it has a roof and walls and a door to protect from the cold. It is a home built by a quiet and steady young woman, whose actions speak louder than her words. And whose name says it all.
Riziki
Riziki grew up in a rural village and became handicapped from childhood polio. She was eventually treated at the Handicapped center, and has since learned to walk again with the help of metal leg braces and crutches. Riziki joined SHONA as an intern in June 2009 and has now become a full-time craftsperson, although she is still being mentored by Argentine. She is a gentle and timid young woman but is growing in confidence daily. Through her SHONA earnings she is now able to provide for herself for the first time in her life. In a beautiful picture of empowerment, She is also providing for Zawadi, her younger sister. Zawadi spent years caring for Riziki during her treatment, but now the shoe is on the other foot, and Riziki has become able to provide for her sister. Zawadi lives with the SHONA women, and Riziki helps provide her with food and housing, as well as paying for her to return to school.
Solange
Solange has overcome incredible odds to get where she is today. While she was growing up she not only became disabled due to polio, she also faced the loss of both her parents, and her eyes still fill with tears at the thought. She found herself living in the midst of her a war-zone and because of her disability she was unable to flee, and often had to find places to hide herself when the fighting grew to close to her home. Eventually she was taken to the Handicapped Center for treatment, and she spent her teenage years there, undergoing an operation to straighten her legs and learning to walk with the help of heavy metal leg braces and crutches. In June 2009 Solange graduated from the Handicapped Center Sewing Program and was required to move out of the Center. The rural home she grew up in has been destroyed by the war, and her remaining family (2 younger siblings) were living in a refugee camp, leaving Solange with few options to return to. SHONA offered Solange an internship, which provided her with a place to live and food to eat, as she continued to grow in her sewing skills. Solange has proven to be a dedicated craftsperson, and an excellent team-member, and has now joined SHONA full-time. She is now providing for herself through the work of her own hands and hopes to soon be earning enough money to begin helping her younger siblings as well.
Dawn
Dawn lived in Goma, Congo for three years, from 2006-2009. She is an English teacher by profession, and spent her first months in Goma learning Swahili and teaching English at one of the local universities. While she enjoyed teaching at the university, she often found herself overwhelmed by the level of poverty in Goma, and wanted to do something a bit more tangible to address in some small way the poverty and desperation that many people live with.
SHONA started with those few seeds, but quickly became a small group of talented young women, who live with physical disabilities but also with incredible joy and determination. For the following years Dawn worked daily with Argentine and Mapendo, learning from their sewing and Swahili skills, developing products with them, training them in quality control, and teaching courses in math, accounting and leadership skills. After SHONA sales increased, Mapendo and Argentine then trained 2 new young ladies in those same skills (Riziki and Solange)
Dawn is currently living in New York City, with her husband and daughter. She volunteers much of her time and energy to do all of the behind-the-scenes work on SHONA from stocking and shipping to maintaining the website.