Red Enters the Eye

BBC Radio 4, Afternoon play When idealistic young volunteer Julie sets off for Nigeria, she's a bundle of nerves. Her project is to teach sewing skills to women in a refuge in Jos; but what if they don't like her - or feel patronised by her attempts to teach them? Once Julie's in Jos, her anxieties evaporate. Sewing class is a roaring success, and Julie's only problems are the stupid caution and lack of enthusiasm of refuge director Fran, and the incomprehensible tensions surrounding the silent Muslim woman, Mathenneh. Inspired by a plan to help the women make money from their sewing, ready to really make a difference to their lives, Julie is on a roll ... blithely unaware that there may be consequences, unimaginable and terrible, to her failure to play by Fran's rules.