Wedding dress banks help brides in Africa
Hantie, a bridal boutique owner, is one of many who donate to the Church of the Nazarene’s wedding dress banks across Africa. After dresses from her shop have been rented out several times, they often find their way into a bank. Some donated dresses even travel from as far as the U.S.
The wedding dress bank idea originated from a need recognized at several Nazarene Bible colleges. When graduating students didn’t have the money to pay for a formal wedding dress, they were lent dresses by missionaries. This idea of providing dresses spread throughout the missionary network in Africa and there are now dress banks in north, south, and central Mozambique, north and south Angola, Sao Tomé and Principe, and other areas.
Recently, three weddings took place in Sao Tomé and Principe using dresses from the bank. Hantie donated each of the gowns used in the ceremonies. Martha and Phil Patalano, resident U.S. missionaries in Sao Tomé and Principe, transported the dresses during visits to South Africa, and the brides were overjoyed by this assistance.
In other parts of Africa, used (also termed “pre-loved”) wedding dresses were given to widows. The women use them to create their own cheap formal dress rental businesses, which generates income for themselves and their families.
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