The members of BeadforLIfe come from every tribe in Uganda. They are Christian and Muslim, young and old, educated and illiterate. The one thing they have in common is that they have suffered from extreme poverty. They have great resilience, strength and determination.

Our members' generosity, in the grip of poverty, is profoundly moving. They work hard and have hope living with dignity and determination. They sing and dance to celebrate BeadforLife and other joyful events.

BeadforLife is in partnership with these women, and a few men too, to offer their stories and beautiful jewelry and bags to the world.

Women with HIV/AIDS

approximately half of our members are women living with HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS has wreaked havoc in Uganda and throughout Africa. In Uganda alone, over 1 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. More than 1 million children have been orphaned. Every family has been affected. Many of our beaders suffer other challenges as well, including TB, malnutrition, illiteracy, unemployment, and no access to safe water.

Internally displaced people from the war in Northern Uganda

Many of the women in BeadforLife are from the Acholi tribe and have been driven from their homes in Northern Uganda by a brutal warlord bringing terror and death to their villages. They left their agricultural way of life to avoid the violence and to protect their children from kidnappings.

Earning a Living
Before BeadforLife, our members - beaders and shea nut gatherers - had few alternatives for supporting themselves and their families. They are mostly without marketable skills or adequate education. In Uganda unemployment is very high. For the Acholi women, the primary means of earning a living is in a rock quarry. Sitting in the blistering sun, workers break rocks by hand to make gravel. For this bone-breaking work, they receive about a dollar a day or $30 per month. Now our members are busy learning how to run small businesses or increasing their agricultural production.

How the Beaders of BeadforLife Spend Their Money

Our average member makes approximately $275 a month. Their first expenditure is for food. The women want to provide three meals a day for their extended family. Both the quantity and the quality of the food they consume have improved since they joined BeadforLife. They joke amongst themselves at how they have become "round."

Other spending priorities include:
• Rent
• School fees, books, pens, shoes, and school uniforms
• Medicines and health care
• Savings: All of the members of BeadforLife now have savings accounts and are diligently saving to build a house of their own, and to open a small business.
• Transportation, clothing, household items
• Contributions to other family members in need

Living Conditions

Before joining BeadforLife our members lived in rented mud rooms without electricity, windows, or running water. Most of the rooms are small, measuring approximately 8 by 12 feet. Our members have large families; normally six or more people live in the one small room. Often, one household includes several generations of siblings, grandparents, and cousins living together.

Their few possessions might be a handful of clothes, cooking pots and utensils, water jugs, and perhaps a piece of furniture or a sleeping mat. They cook outside over charcoal. Often times a dozen families will share one latrine. Rooms are packed together with narrow paths winding between them.

After enrolling in BeadforLife, members begin investing in their families, their health, and their savings accounts, working their way slowly but steadily out of poverty.