Is there a better way to celebrate the arrival of spring than by bringing together over 100 products and services whose goal is to make the planet a cleaner, healthier and more ethical place? The European BeadTeam recently had the pleasure of being a part of just that! The Salon Vivre Autrement (literally the “live differently” trade show), which takes place annually in Paris’s Parc Floral, invites visitors to think outside the box and to consider the more eco-friendly and fair trade options we have as consumers. BeadforLife exhibited its recycled paper beaded jewelry at this event as an ecological, ethical and beautiful option in modern fashion accessories.
Also known as the Ethical, Chic and Organic Fair, it showcases everything from Catherine Carpentier coats made from farm-raised angora, and earth-friendly hand-printed and extremely witty tee-shirts by Ecoloco, to organic wine, wind turbines and solar powered toys. The Vivre Autrement fair also offers conferences and workshops for visitors to get a hands-on experience of alternative and sustainable ways of eating, dressing, buying and living. This year, BeadforLife teamed up with Quart de Poil’, a Paris-based architectural design firm which creates highly functional, contemporary furniture out of recycled cardboard and leather. This was a truly winning combination for the BeadforLife booth as the eco-friendly furnishings were the perfect backdrop for our brightly colored beads. Check out the photos!
The fair was a great success and the European BeadTeam was pleased to see many of our supporters and past BeadParty hosts who stopped by to say hello. As we rode our Vélib city bikes through the streets of Paris each day to the fair, we couldn’t help but feel even better about such an eco-friendly commute. Ah, Springtime in Paris!
Tags: Africa, BeadforLife, BeadParty, Empowering Women, Europe, paper jewelry, Poverty Eradication, sustainability, Women Making A Difference
Anebo Betty is happy! She’s just completed BeadforLife’s entrepreneurial training program in Uganda, and the business she launched is fast becoming a success. A new house, under construction on property that she owns, already has potential tenants clamoring for the rooms she plans to rent.
When we first told Betty’s story during last year’s March Out of Poverty campaign, her goal was to feed her children more than one meal a day and to send them to school. By the end of the campaign, she was able to expand her maize-roasting business and had acquired a plot of land in her home town and was saving money to build rooms to rent out. Today, she’s well on her way to securing a prosperous future for herself and her family, thanks to the program funding provided primarily by BeadParties. Watch this video to see how your support and Betty’s hard work have made her hopes a reality.
There’s still time to participate in March Out of Poverty 2012. Host a BeadParty and empower more women like Betty to control their own destinies.
Tags: Africa, Beaders, BeadforLife, Empowering Women, entrepreneurial training, sustainability, Women Making A Difference
Standing in Kafuko Minina’s compound, it is easy to see the changes she has made since enrolling in BeadforLife. Standing next t
o an old mud house where Kafuko and her children used to reside is a large, four room brick home in which they have recently moved. Kafuko did not have any source of income before joining BeadforLife. As one of three co-wives, she received little support from her husband aside from the land he provided for the house. She emphatically states, “BeadforLife is the one constructing this house.”
Kafuko Minina has seven children and is now supporting a grandchild who was born two months premature. She says the income from BeadforLife has allowed her to buy food during food shortages and to pay school fees for her children. Kafuko believes that “the greatest help you can give a child is educating him or her.” She has high hopes for her children’s futures. Kafuko hopes to aid one of her daughters in starting up a drug shop (pharmacy) tha
t will help to support her and the rest of the family.
Kafuko Minina is now participating in a BeadforLife agribusiness program and has planted two acres of maize and g-nuts (peanuts). Kafuko was able to purchase agricultural inputs including seeds and fertilizer through a pre-loan on her business fund. Members of BeadforLife in Iganga are now putting some of their income each month into a business fund to support their new business and to help sustain it after completing our program.
Uganda has one of the highest rates of Malaria infection in the world. It is the reason why BeadforLife makes insecticide treated bed nets available to all of our members. In the Southern Uganda, we trade nets for beads, allowing each member to get nets for her entire family. In Northern Uganda, we trade shea nuts for nets, which is especially important as malaria is endemic in the regions we work.
Here is a great report from Al Jazeera on Malaria in Uganda.
Tags: Africa, insecticide treated bed nets, malaria, shea, shea nuts, Uganda
Elizabeth Mac
Invisible Children’s Kony 2012 film has been an internet sensation. Last year, Elizabeth Mac hosted a BeadforLife Bead Party as part of her Peace Meal Project, and made it an event to benefit both BeadforLife and Invisible Children. Here is what she had to say:
“Members of The Peace Meal Project host potluck dinner parties and group outings to bring people together to socialize and raise awareness, as well as funds for charity. Each Peace Meal Project gathering benefits an organization that promotes a peaceful existence for the people of their communities and the world. About a year ago as I was flipping through the pages of a magazine, a photograph of a beautiful BeadforLife necklace caught my eye. Naturally, I read further and was amazed to learn that an entire collection of jewelry was handmade from recycled paper by women in Uganda. I also learned about BeadforLife for the first time. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that BeadforLife is headquartered in Boulder … right in my own back yard!
I was so moved by the story of the BeadforLife members. I knew immediately that The Peace Meal Project needed to host a BeadParty and become a part of this beautiful success story! I scheduled “Full Circle”, a dinner party to benefit BeadforLife, and got busy creating invitations, ordering the BeadParty kit, and finding Ugandan recipes to serve at our Peace Meal.
A few days later, my daughter Calli came home from school speaking excitedly and urgently about a seminar that she had attended at the Conference on World Affairs. She told me about a presentation by Invisible Children concerning Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army. She shared the atrocities they had committed against Ugandan children by abducting them from their families and forcing them to be child soldiers and sex slaves. Calli was distressed by what she had learned and insisted that we host a Peace Meal to help these children.
Since many of the BeadforLife women in Uganda had been affected by Kony and the LRA, it seemed perfect to expand the “Full Circle” Peace Meal to benefit both BeadforLife and Invisible Children. And so, The Peace Meal Project gathered a circle of friends for a 
potluck dinner, two film screenings and a shopping market.
Our party was very successful in raising awareness and funds for both organizations. Guests were moved to tears with the desire to help the victims of violence in Uganda. And, like me, none of them had heard of Joseph Kony prior to this Peace Meal. 
As many are now aware, Invisible Children recently launched an internet video campaign, Kony 2012. There has been criticism of the film and Invisible Children, centered mostly on the fact that Kony hasn’t been present in Uganda for about six years and Uganda is currently mostly peaceful. Some view the film as simplistic, without providing reasonable solutions to the major issues. In my opinion, these concerns are legitimate. However, I don’t feel that they outweigh the question of whether or not to take action.
I believe we should be respectful of the African people who have been and will be affected by Kony’s actions and consider their responses and reactions. But, wherever Kony is, it seems to me that we should do what we can to stop him.”
Thank you for your contributions to BeadforLife Elizabeth, and for your wise thinking on this issue. Learn more about hosting a BeadParty to support the women affected by Kony.
Tags: Africa, BeadCircle, donating, Empowering Women, Lord's Resistance Army, paper jewelry, Peace meal Project, Poverty Eradication, Uganda, Women Making A Difference
Meet Acola Bitokorina, one of the many shea nut gatherers we purchase shea nuts from in Northern Uganda.
Bitokorina is fifty-three years old and has never received an education beyond second grade. Her father did not value formal education and so when the costs became too burdensome, Bitokorina and her six siblings stopped attending school. She married at the age of eighteen and gave birth to fifteen children; sadly, she lost seven to fevers and other common illness. Bitokorina currently lives in the village of Abua in Olilim with her eight remaining children and husband.
When her home was attacked by LRA rebels in 2003, she was inside with her youngest son and was unable to flee with the rest of the family. The rebels left her unharmed but took her son Tony, who was nine years old at the time. The rebels used him as a porter for about a week until he managed to escape under the cover of night. Tony found travelers on the road who were on their way to the IDP (internally displaced person) camp, joined them, and soon located the rest of his family.
Bitokorina lost siblings and extended family to rebel warfare but is grateful to have her immediate family intact. She has been gathering shea nuts and pressing them for oil since she was a young girl. She started selling them in the local market in 2004. Bitokorina’s family supplements their agricultural sales by raising pigeons for sale in the local market. Though shea nut yields have been low on her land in recent years due to a wildfire, many young saplings remain and Bitokorina eagerly awaits future harvests. In the meantime, she has been able to use the little nuts she has for swaps with BeadforLife for essentials such as mosquito nets and gumboots.
We welcome your support by purchasing our shea products or beads, or hosting a BeadParty.
Tags: Africa, agribusiness, BeadforLife, BeadParty, Empowering Women, Joseph Kony, Lord's Resistance Army, Poverty Eradication, shea butter, Uganda, Women Making A Difference
In 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay, and voting rights. Since that simple collaborative action, the world has made great strides in both how women view themselves and how society considers women as economic, political, and social equals to men. Today, on the 101st annual International Women’s Day, we celebrate just how far women have come: they can become astronauts and prime ministers, they are welcomed into universities, and they can choose to work outside of the home and have a healthy family.
But we still have further to go. For women like Mary, who struggles everyday in the streets of Kampala to feed her five children; or Helen, a vivacious 15-year-old rural village girl who dreams of becoming a doctor, gender equality is barely conceivable. The unfortunate fact is that many women, especially those in developing countries like Uganda, are still not paid equally to men. They are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, they have limited access to education and healthcare, and are most likely to be victims of violence.
Boarding school students sponsored by BeadforLife. An extra year of secondary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by as much as 25%.
International Women’s Day and its 2012 theme, “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures,” reminds us to take a stand to empower women where it truly counts: education. As The World Bank reports, an educated woman is a good investment. She tends to be healthier, to participate more in the formal labor market, to earn more income, to have fewer children, and to provide better healthcare and education to her children. Eventually, these factors improve the well-being of all individuals and lift households out of poverty. What’s more, they transmit their benefits across generations and to their communities at large.
The help of one person can ignite the minds and fuel the spirits of women and girls, who then feel empowered to shift the future of their communities. The proceeds from one BeadParty represents a year of boarding school for three rural Ugandan girls with no prior access to secondary education, or one full year of entrepreneurial training for six women who will achieve economic independence by launching their own businesses.
There’s still time to participate in BeadforLife’s MARCH Out of Poverty Campaign, and to support International Women’s Day and its global mission. As women have been demonstrating for more than 100 years, simple acts have tremendous impact.
Tags: Africa, Beaders, BeadforLife, Education, Empowering Girls, Empowering Women, International Women's Day, paper jewelry, sustainability, Women Making A Difference
The BeadforLife team in Iganga, Uganda has been hard at work helping our members prepare to start sustainable, agricultural business projects by the next crop cycle in April. Over the last few months, all of our members took part in entrepreneurial training activities such as visiting model farms and attending agricultural seminars. They will soon start field practicums with experienced farmers to learn successful farming techniques firsthand.
Our team is currently working with 150 female members in 5 sub-counties surrounding Iganga, many of which are located at least 15km (9 miles) from the town center. Transportation costs are high and very difficult for our members to pay. To engage successfully in business, they must travel to attend trainings, to access their farms, and to market their products. Because of this, the Iganga team came up with a creative solution to exchange bangles for bicycles.
Having completed a second bicycle exchange, our staff was inspired by its success. Many of the women who participated already knew how to ride their bicycles and 
rode them home the same day they received them. Those who know how to ride bicycles plan to work together within their sub-counties to teach those who don’t. More importantly, because the bicycle exchange was coupled with business training, the women are already thinking strategically about long-term, entrepreneurial applications for their bicycles. Many spoke of using them to purchase feed for livestock, to sell eggs from their poultry, to bike to their farms, and to sell other basic commodities.
Exchanging bangles for bicycles gave our members both the knowledge and the tools necessary to start their own agricultural businesses, along with the potential to lift themselves and their families out of extreme poverty.
– Contributed by Alexis Coppola, BeadforLife Uganda Office
If you’re interested in making a general donation to BeadforLife, please contact Heather Megan at heathermegan@beadforlife.org
Tags: Africa, agribusiness, agriculture, Beaders, Empowering Women, sustainability, Uganda