I’ve been working with a very gracious woman up at ALARM. Katherine Holloway is in charge of ALARM’s African Women’s Initiatives (AWI). She’s been working to help me acquire some jewelry to run as my pilot program. AWI exists to empower impoverished women on the margins of African society. They offer training and mentoring in micro-business, together with micro-finance loans and grants. To this end AWI works with a group of twenty or so widows in Kampala, Uganda to help them earn a living. What these women produce is amazing.
The women who made this jewelry were displaced from their homes in northern Uganda by a 21 year war. After fleeing on foot to the south, they have settled in Kampala, where the King of Buganda gave them land for what now looks like a refugee camp.
Of the 22 women in this group, most are widows. Some are HIV positive. A few are married, but their husbands don’t have work. All the women are very poor. They have built their houses out of mud, using polythene papers for their roofs.
The women work together to make these beautiful beads out of magazine pages. They cut the pages into thin strips, which they then roll on a needle and hold in place with glue. The beads are then strung onto a long string and dipped in vanish. They must dry for 3 days before being dipped and dried 2 more times. The process takes about 2 weeks. When the beads have been dried for the last time, the ladies restring them into the beautiful jewelry that you see in the images. The money these women make from selling the jewelry allows them to provide food, shelter, education, and medical care for their families.
I have purchased approximately 400+ units and will use them to test my concept. The whole team at ALARM is amazing – what they are doing to help bring peace and reconciliation is simply awe-inspiring. I encourage you to check out their website to see what they’re up to – www.alarm-inc.org
