Like many people when young, Sarah Umutoni had a dream—fashion. However, she watched this dream slowly weaken when she got pregnant at the age of 22, because in a sad twist, the man who sired the child, on hearing about the pregnancy, decided to abandon her, leaving her to raise the child singlehandedly. Before she got pregnant, things were going smoothly. She got a job at a beauty salon with the help of the mother of one of her friends. She started with a salary of Rwf 40,000 per month, and her target was to save money and buy a sewing machine which would cost about Rwf 75,000. In about four months, Umutoni had reached her target. She bought a sewing machine, and rented a small place in Nyabugogo for Rwf 13,000 a month, where she started working. Along the way, she fell in love and got pregnant. With everything she had going on, including the baby’s father abandoning her, she pulled herself together and continued with life. For her, sewing is a passion, and even though she didn’t pursue a course in it, she spent most of her time as a child watching her father sew, and that’s how she learnt the basics. Umutoni is now the CEO of Sarah Fashion Gaze, a fashion house located inside Chic building in town. She makes attire such as dresses, blazers, men’s shirts, women’s tops, children’s bags, and so much more, from local material like linen and kitenge, among others. As a child, she was fascinated by great designs. She dreamed of dressing celebrities for events and having people ask about her designs on the red carpet—the dream is to be great globally. Whereas fashion was the goal, she knew a thing or two about modelling and beauty pageants. While in secondary school, Umutoni participated in the ‘Miss Fawe’ pageant in 2014, where she was crowned winner. She also competed in the ‘Miss High School’ beauty pageant in 2014 and finished in the top five. “From there, I yearned to compete in the ‘Miss Rwanda’ pageant but that dreamed died because I got pregnant after high school. It looked like all my dreams were fading but later, I managed to work hard, with a supportive family,” she says. Living the dream When she got pregnant, she became inconsistent with the sewing as she wasn’t always able to come in. Some weeks she worked, others she didn’t, mostly out of fear that people would notice she was pregnant—out of wedlock! During this time, she had started gaining clients, with hopes of getting an even bigger space. But the pregnancy grew to a point where she couldn’t hide it anymore. Sarah Umutoni works on a client’s order. “It was a period that brought so much anguish to my life, it was stressful, people criticised me, on top of insulting me, and others called me all sorts of names like, ‘prostitute’ and so forth. Other people kept asking annoying questions like, ‘why did you even get pregnant?’,” she says. So she shifted from Nyabugogo to another place in town where she co-rented a room with other tailors, and eventually gave birth. Looking at her now two-year-old daughter gives her so much joy and energy to work harder, she says. She later invested in a better sewing machine, and was ready to stand on her own, hence, initiating her brand. She also employs two workers for now. However, she still doesn’t have enough capital to expand her shop, but she looks forward to marketing her designs on social media and attracting more customers. Umutoni notes that today’s market is flooded with so many designs, and there is a lot of ‘copy and paste’, but the goal is to be unique so she can stand out. On many occasions, she recalls, she was discouraged by friends to drop the idea of fashion, and instead complete school and look for a white-collar job because ‘sewing is a low-paying job for the uneducated’. Of course, she turned a deaf ear. The 24-year-old designer says she has learned a number of lessons that keep her going, for instance, being flexible to embrace change, having an open mind and listening to others, being a continuous learner regarding trends and economics, and being innovative motivated. Her advice to single mothers is to never stop chasing their dreams because, with love for what they do and consistency, they will succeed and give their children everything they need. In a few years, Umutoni hopes to have opened a factory, and employed more people, to build her brand in and outside Rwanda. She is currently pursuing a course in finance at Kigali Independent University (ULK). editor@newtimesrwanda.com You can reach Sarah Umutoni on 0786356006
