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"People can change their own lives, provided they have the right kind of institutional support. They're not asking for charity, charity is no solution to poverty. Poverty can be overcome by the creation of opportunities like everybody else has…so that they can change their lives."
~ Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Letter from BeadforLife Director
Three years ago, when we founded BeadforLife, we accepted the challenge to figure out how to partner with people to give them a hand in getting themselves out of poverty. We developed BeadforLife in an organic manner, following what we knew, intuited, or learned, happily or painfully. I thought you might like a snapshot of the basics of our program.
Membership lasts for twenty-seven months during which time members are trained to make beautiful paper beads from recycled paper. It is important that the beaders have regular income so they can get used to dealing with money. They open savings accounts saving money twice a month when they sell beads to us. It is astounding that they will save 25-70% of their earnings despite the fact that they have very few possessions.
A year into their membership we provide a two-week entrepreneurial training in which members create a business plan. Six months before they graduate they receive a business-matching grant large enough to get the business launched. With cheerleading from the enthusiastic BeadforLife staff the first group of 90 women have started small businesses such as selling used clothes, lending money, building mud houses to rent out, repairing motorcycles, making candles, and drying fish. Several are starting little restaurants and one has even drilled a borehole and is selling water!
With their savings members are also building houses in the new BeadforLife village. The first group of beaders graduates in February and you can be sure we will be studying their progress to learn how to keep improving our work.
As we enter into the hectic but wonderful holiday season we want to thank you for giving beads to your family and friends for the holidays. You make the world a brighter place by doing so. We are so happy to have you as part of the Bead Circle.
From all of the beaders, the youth in vocational training, the children in school, and the BFL staff in both Uganda and in North America happy holidays to you and to all those that you touch.
Torkin
Wakefield
Director
Goodbye
Promise,
Goodbye Amony Night
This month we had two deaths within our Ugandan community, Amony Night and Promise. Amony had already led a long life, one filled with struggles to survive with her large family. She was caring for three orphaned children from her daughter who died of AIDS. She passed away at the International Hospital where BeadforLife sponsors a bed. Her eyes had a special sparkle when she shared her joy with us. God's speed Amony Night.
~~
Promise' death totally came from nowhere breaking our hearts wide open. Promise was a two year old, Harriet's only child. She got up one morning, started to play as usual, then fell into her mother's arms and died. Harriet, who lives in the new BeadforLife village, was surrounded by her neighbors who ran to her house in response to her intense keening. We had to know what happened.
Apparently
Promise was born with a congenital problem in her brain. She had experienced a
hemorrhage and died instantly. It will be a long time until our tears dry up.
We will miss this little bright spirit playing next to the well.
Amony Night
Promise
Special
Opportunity! BeadforLife Uganda Trip: Feb 29 - Mar. 14, 2008
Do you want to visit Uganda, meet the BeadforLife members, and help women build their homes in the BeadforLife Village. Consider our next trip from Feb 29 - March 14, 2008. In addition to home building, trip participants will spend time with the women beaders at a bead sale, engage with the local community and go on safari to majestic Murchison Falls where thousands of animals like elephants, giraffe, and lions can be seen. This is not a luxury trip but it is a trip of a lifetime. Participants will have a true Uganda experience and a chance to experience things that most tourists never will. Space is very limited and participants accepted on a first come basis. For more information, visit our Trip page.
Comment
from Barb Cherny, a participant on the fall BeadforLIfe trip.
"What
an incredible trip it was .... I feel so LUCKY to have been part of such a unique
experience. It was so full. The women are so wonderful and generous. They are
so strong and have to overcome so much. The country is poor yet so rich in many
ways. It is hard to take it all in."
Welcome Mirembe!
One of the biggest joys of our work in Uganda is to welcome a new group entering our program. Each new member is eager to work hard. Poverty is all too familiar to them, after a life of difficulty, many have their doubts about whether or not they will succeed. Meet our newest members, 52 women and 4 men who are now rolling beads and opening savings accounts.
Many
of these new beaders are displaced by the war in the north. Some younger women
were commercial sex workers forced into this deadly trade by poverty. Others are
women who are widows without family, or are living with HIV. At their first meeting
there was a lively conversation about what to name their group. They settled on
"Mirembe" which means "Peace" and says it all about how
they feel. Welcome Mirembe! We are proud to partner with you as you make your
way out of poverty.
Members of BeadforLife have the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty through their own hard work. But the women we work with represent another 1.2 billion people worldwide, 70% of whom are women, who struggle to live on less than a dollar a day.
We believe every woman facing extreme poverty deserves the opportunity to lift her family out of poverty, and that is why BeadforLife supports the GROWTH Act - an innovative bill in the US Congress that would target development efforts to offer economic opportunities to women.
By focusing on property rights, access to financial services, capacity building, fair and equal wages, and the ability of women to benefit from global trade, the GROWTH Act would make US development more effective in partnering with women to climb out of poverty.
This bill needs your support today. Please contact your Senator and Representative today and urge them to co-sponsor the GROWTH Act. Click here to send them an email asking them to be an official co-sponsor. The GROWTH Act isn't a partisan issue - it is just good and effective policy that will benefit women and families worldwide.
For
more information on the GROWTH Act, click
here
Shopping is Giving
The holiday season is upon us and there is no better time to share the gift of purposeful giving with your loved ones. BeadforLife offers unique handmade beaded jewelry that looks fabulous with any dress style. By purchasing an item from BeadforLife as a holiday gift you are not only supporting women in Uganda but you are helping to educate others about extreme poverty. The BeadforLife story is detailed in a gift card that is sent with each item purchased.
Ideal Holiday Gifts:
- Single Strand Necklaces in a vibrant array of colors $10
- Multi-Colored Loose Beads for all your holiday crafts $12/ bag
- Gift certificates now available in our web store; let your loved ones choose their own special items (prices range between $10- $100)
Check out these and other items at our web store: Your gift gives twice; once to the lucky recipient and once to the woman who made the beads.
If you would like to send us a letter about your experience with the beads and BeadforLife please do so. Send to torkin@beadforlife.org.
Dear BeadforLife, June 22, 2007
I'm hereby sending you a great thanks for the good work that you are doing as far as your project is concerned. I thank God for having mentioned of you into my prayers and for the good heart that he had given you. Thank you for your parental love and care for the needy.Thanks BeadforLife for having restored happiness unto my life. Thank you for sending me to school so that I might have a bright future. I am studying so hard and will not fail BeadforLife. Thanks,
Yours truly,
Ayoo Filder
Vocational Training Student studying computers
