Bead for life

[donheld]

This is very interesting and heart warming

www.beadforlife.com

What is BeadforLife?
BeadforLife is a unique community development project that builds economic and cultural bridges between impoverished women in Uganda and concerned citizens in North America. Through the sale of attractive, handmade jewelry, the project generates income for over 150 Ugandan bead makers and their families. The beaders are impoverished women living with HIV as well as refugees displaced by a devastating-and largely unpublicized-civil war that has been raging in northern Uganda for 19 years. Many are widows who take care of their own children along with numerous orphans in dark one-room mud huts with no windows, electricity, or running water. In spite of these challenges the resilience of these women and their desire to work hard is an inspiration. Through home hosted BeadWear parties, internet sales, conference presentations, and school programs, BeadforLife connects North Americans with these women and provides tangible ways to participate in eradicating poverty in Africa through economic and cross-cultural partnerships. BeadforLife is a Colorado-based non-profit organization.

What is the philosophy of BeadforLife?
From our experience in Uganda, we found that people want jobs rather than handouts. With this in mind, BeadforLife is guided by the principle that creating jobs through local partnerships is a more sustainable approach to development than providing aid. Rather than become dependent on handouts from abroad, the beaders build their skills and long-term capacities through meaningful, creative work. After just a few months of work, some beaders begin to diversify their income base through starting cottage industries and local enterprises. We take care not to disrupt the social and economic fabric of the communities in which the beaders live by preserving a balance between the beaders' income and that of their surrounding communities. We pay all of our beaders fair trade prices for their products and invest 100% of our profits in community development projects in the beaders' communities and in other parts of Uganda.

How did BeadforLife get started?
The project got it's start through a chance encounter between a Ugandan refugee named Akena Millie Grace and BeadforLife co-founders Torkin Wakefield and Ginny Jordan while doing HIV outreach work in the Acholi Quarter of Kampala. This urban slum houses over 2,000 Acholi tribal refugees from the civil war in Northern Uganda. Most community members, including children as young as six, make a subsistence livelihood by breaking up rocks in a hot, sun baked gravel pit for less than a dollar a day. Walking through the Acholi Quarter one day, Torkin and Ginny noticed Millie Grace sitting in the sun making colorful beads from strips of recycled magazine paper. They learned that she and dozens of other women in the community were making these beads, but they had no market for them.

Torkin and Ginny took 100 necklaces back to North America to explore marketing possibilities. The response was wildly enthusiastic. The beads sold quickly and numerous volunteers joined in to help create an organization that would sustain the efforts of the beaders. Within a year, BeadforLife applied for its non-profit status, hired a small staff in Uganda and Colorado, and built a community of North American volunteers who support the organization through home BeadWear parties and educational events.

[eleny]

1. I love making paper beads

So, let me assure folks that beads of paper are very strong. And the beads & jewelry on that site are beautiful! I'm still looking.

Thanks for posting about it.

[MichiganVote]

2. Cool. I have some people who would like these, they're beautiful!