http://www.care2.com/greenliving/beadforlife-getting-out-of-poverty-by-making-paper-beads.html
BeadForLife: Escaping Poverty
Millie lives on $1 a day earned from crushing rocks in a quarry, and she has asthma. This is enough for one meal a day for her whole family. She lives in a 4ft. x 7ft. hut with her six children, two of which are AIDS orphans she has adopted. They have no water, no electricity, and no possessions. It is so small that one person is appointed to say when everyone should roll over at night.
At least, that was how Millie was living. Now she has a small house of her own, financed by a brick-making business she runs. All this was made possible because she learned how to roll beads out of strips of recycled paper.
We have been deeply moved by the work of two friends of ours who went to Uganda, Africa. Dr. Charles was there to teach the local doctors how to use AIDS medicines. But before they left the US, he, his wife Torkin, daughter Devin, and friend Ginny sat together in prayer. “We said we were tired of talking about how hard the world is, and asked for something to do. This very clear intention was voiced within the context of prayer and sacred commitment,” Torkin told us. “We never dreamt it would be through paper beads!”
A few months later, Ginny and Devin joined Charles and Torkin in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. On a chance encounter in a Kampala slum, on their way to visit an AIDS patient, the women met Millie who was rolling paper beads but who told them that she had no market to sell them. They bought a few of her necklaces and, as they wore them, found that many people admired and wanted them. “So we went back to find this woman and discovered a group of her friends who also made beads. We bought about a 100 necklaces. We came back to the US for the summer and began to sell them to friends and at craft fairs.”
The beads began to generate interest, including a magazine article. Torkin and Ginny realized there was a market, but that most importantly it was about the story and the heartfelt desire to help those in need. One man, who loved the beads so much and wanted to give to the beaders, offered $200 for a necklace that was on sale for $20.
By September 2004 Torkin had returned to Africa and BeadForLife was born.
The women who become beaders all live in slums in Kampala. Many of them are HIV positive, malaria is rampant, and nearly all are raising, alongside their own children, other children they have adopted from some of the 1.4 million AIDS orphans in Uganda. At least 95% of the beaders are women and 40% are refugees, living as Millie did in huts with just enough room for them to lie down. All have multiple life challenges. As Torkin says, “It was very humbling to work with these people who struggle so deeply yet also know how to lift themselves up, to laugh, sing and have joy. In a song they wrote there is one line that remains in my heart: ‘We dance while we are suffering.’”
A beader who joins the BeadForLife program gets paid twice a month for their beads and they have to open a savings account. The program is 27 months long and the beaders all receive health care, optional family planning, and business training. By month 20, BeadForLife tops up their savings to $800, enough so that each one can begin their own business to support themselves after the bead-making program has finished. One woman, who used to wash prostitutes’ clothes in a nightclub, now owns a nightclub; there are restaurants, chicken farms, dry good stores, and clothing stores, all begun this way.
Beads can be bought online, but because of the power of the beaders stories, most beads are sold through BeadParties hosted in people’s own homes. This is how everyone can help. The host is sent a whole package of information with stories of the beaders, as well as African recipes, and 300 bead necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Many times two or three women do this together and it is really fun. There were 2000 bead parties last year; that is six or seven parties a day. And most importantly, the beads are beautiful — vibrant colors and different shapes and strings. The prices are low, $5 to $30 per item, so that everyone can afford to buy at least one item. Those dollars are immediately turned into income and food, medicine, school fees, and the hope that keeps them moving out of poverty.
BeadForLife has also been featured in Oprah’s ‘O’ Magazine and on NBC, with an overwhelming response. Get all the details at: www.BeadForLife.org
Let us hear from you. Do share with us your stories of getting out of poverty.
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11 comments
add your comment »We were taught in grade school how to make beads from old magazines. This is such a heartwarming story about livelihood generated from such beads! Thanks for the article and more power to Bead For Life! GOD bless!
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For snyone who wants toknwo more or whoever wants to have a beadforlife party go to
www.beadofrlife.com
Our Love,
Ed
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WQhat a wonderful concept!!! Thank God someone thought of it!
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Our church family had the honor of four events this past summer with beadparties and what joy it gave us to see and feel the beautiful hand work of the beads.our only regert was to not have larger bangles to wear as anklets for the ladies and larger ones for our men wrist. we put in a request we hope to do another party for the hoildays. God Blessing
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It is great to hear that they are finding a way out of poverty. I wish we could find more solutions like this one for the poor here in the US.
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i have a bead for life bracelet and think, by comparison, they're reasonably priced. however, i can never understand why charitable products don't cost significantly less than standard products. charity baskets at macy's cost around 60.00. if it takes one day to make a basket, and people are used to living on 1.00 a day, then where is all that money going. i'm assuming they pay 3-4.00 a day to increase the women's standard of living, but that's alot left over. does it cost 50.00+ to export and sell one basket? can anyone explain this to me.
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i have a bead for life bracelet and think, by comparison, they're reasonably priced. however, i can never understand why charitable products don't cost significantly less than standard products. charity baskets at macy's cost around 60.00. if it takes one day to make a basket, and people are used to living on 1.00 a day, then where is all that money going. i'm assuming they pay 3-4.00 a day to increase the women's standard of living, but that's alot left over. does it cost 50.00+ to export and sell one basket? can anyone explain this to me.
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It is from reading stories such as Millie, when I know there are millions others like hers, that CONVINCED ME that GWB, high-jacked as he had been ideologically particularly ON THE HOME FRONT and on an 'ABSTRACT 'Willow-o-the-Wisp' ISSUE called 'DEMOCRACY', THAT HE COULD NOT , in himself, be a BAD GUY ! Reports concerning this devastating PANDEMIC coming out of Sub-Saharan AFRICA, touched him and STUNG HIM into uncharacteristically RAPID RESPONSE (unlike with 'Katrina ' on the Home Front) into authorising the realese of Millions of USDOLLARS, to HELP, little as it it might have in the context of the magnitude of the problem itself. True, in that, he was EMULATING THAT wonderful couple, Belinda and Bill GATES, who had committed some of their OWN wealth towards alleviating the suffering caused by HIV/AIDS in Africa.Indeed so did (and is still) our often also maligned Bill Jefferson Clinton ! Oh, how I wish the the Van Der Bilts, Fords, Rockefellers, Carnegies, Howard Hughes and countless other Millionaires's Foundation Funds could be similarly committed TODAY, towards helping "THE WRETCHED of THE EARTH" (to borrow Fallon's book-title description) see off the rest of their lives in A LITTLE LESS MISERY than they are at present ! Even the less rich, ORDINARY PEOPLE, INFACT, CAN ALSO HELP and MAKE A DIFFERENCE !!PLEASE, RICH WORLD,STOP, LOOK, LISTEN and HELP, THE AILING and WAILING MILLIONS of AFRICA , devastated by HIV/AIDS !PAIN is PAIN ! Help releve it PLEASE !_d'Albert M
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This is great how do we find out how to get this info and throw a bead party?
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DEAR ALL...
THIS IS GREAT...
BEST WISHES...
GERSHON...
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