Fair Trade Recycled Paper Bead Jewelry and the Circle of Women Who Make, Buy and Sell Them
Dear Friends,
Sarah Metzel Adams, WOW’s founder and organizer, is now writing blog posts directly on
www.womenofworthinuganda.wordpress.com
Please click HERE to be taken to the new blog. Words and photos directly from Sarah!!
I’ll see you there!!!!
Thank you for your interest and support. One by one we make the world a better place!!
Here at Women of Worth Uganda’s Blog we are reorganizing ourselves, so sorry for the lack of posts. Sara Metzel Adams will be taking over the writing and running of the blog, but first she has to educate herself on how to do that! That has been hampered a bit by some emails getting through to me, and some not.
It’s all part of the process that will hopefully end with the Ugandan women who are the beaders, crafters and bakers being able to take over their own lives and begin to manage everything on their own in a few years.
Oh, I will still be around, sending in stories and in general learning more, too!
So have patience and we’ll post more very soon!
“Mukwagaliza Bweyazaddibwa Yesu enungi, Nomwakka Mpya Omulungi!”
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
from all of us at Women of Worth Uganda:
The Beaders, Their Families and The Volunteers.
Your interest, compassion and purchases are truly making the World a Better Place!
Blessings on you and yours!
This past Saturday I, Cate, was able to raise about $500.00 for Women of Worth at my holiday home artisan boutique in Silver Spring, Maryland! The purses with their matching coin purses were a huge hit, as were the small patchwork-quilted bags.
So, here’s where your money goes!
I mark up the goods enough to cover:
$98.00 towards the shipment of goods from Uganda to my home, 4 miles north of Washington, DC.
$15-25 for the fee to send the money by Money Gram to Sarah in Uganda.
And the rest goes to Women of Worth, to pay multiple women and some small administrative costs at the Uganda end.
In addition to the information as to where your money goes listed in the last post, here are some more eye-openers:
A $10.00 purchase can by a muffin tray. The women have become good at muffin baking and want to begin selling them. Sarah’s one tray is having a real workout, so she began having them bake in tuna cans! $20.00 would by 2 muffin tins!
$10.00 also buys 2 malaria-preventing mosquito nets.
$10.00 buys less than 2 gallons of gasoline for the car…and we Americans complain about the price of gas!!
$20.00 would make it possible to get one of their treadle sewing machines repaired.
$20.00 also buys a tray of baby chicks. Raising chickens is an affordable way to make money even in the city.
Thank you, everyone who has bought these beautiful beaded items, and more to follow soon!
I must confess that sometimes I wonder what this one sporadically maintained blog can do to help a small group of Ugandan women living on the East side of the African continent.
Fair trade is now the “In Thing,” and there are so many well-tended businesses now, like Bead For Life, Ten Thousand Villages and a zillion web businesses, that I wonder if my interest in such a small venture as Women of Worth Uganda isn’t naive. The larger groups are doing fantastic work, but they do have to mark the artisans’ crafts up just as much as any middle man does to cover their costs and make a profit.
And then, I remember that anything that I have accomplished in my life started out with a healthy dose of naivety and a sort of, “well, I value it so I’ll be able to convince others of the value!” mentality. Come to think of it, that is both naive and idealistic. And that is where most things start.
Sarah Adams started Women of Worth about 7 years ago, (she and her husband, David, have been in East Africa 13 years,) motivated by her love of God to teach the development of skills and interests as a way for a small group of impoversihed women to financially support their families. Some of these women have experienced the worst that man can do to a fellow man, and are learning to value themselves and heal through faith and hard work.
Sarah is in the business of working her way out of her own job as a missionary. When Women of Worth Uganda can stand on its own, she will consider her work a success. That is a totally different frame of reference from most people, to want to work yourself out of a job as a measure of your job success!
To that end, and to help WOW, look at what your purchase can do, either as a seller or a buyer of the recycled paper bead jewelry and purses made by WOW:
A $4.00 bracelet feeds two children for a week. (Or a medium latte at Starbucks)
A $4.00 purchase pays for malaria treatment when a child falls ill. (or five packages of gum)
A purchase of $20.00 pays for a woman’s transportation from the city back to her village. These trips are very important for maintaining family ties and attending celebrations and funerals. ( or one pair of designer socks)
A $35.00 purse buys one child’s school fees for a month and includes lunch! Most African children have to pay a fee to go to school and often have to also pay for school uniforms. (or a movie in a theater, popcorn and soda)
$35.00 also pays for one month’s rent on a one room dwelling without running water or electricity. (or four six-packs of beer)
Contact Sarah to purchase wholesale or, if you are in the Washington, DC area on December 4, come to my Crafts’ Holiday Open House from 2:00-5:00 pm! Contact me for details. You can also purchase from Lee, Sarah’s friend, at Latitudes Fair Trade.
One of the business issues that comes up in the Fair Trade movement is helping Third World artisans know what will sell the US and Europe, both in design and craftsmanship. This is tricky, because we don’t want to tread on the artisans’ pride and hope.
I am the perfect person to speak to this because I had a career as a free-lance classical singer on the East Coast of the US for about 25 years. I worked very hard and followed my interests in contemporary classical chamber music, but would not have been able to support a family on what I made as a performer. If I had needed to support a family with performing, I would have had to listen to the advise of those who could fashion my talents, persona and skills into something people would buy. I would have needed to turn myself into a commodity to sell my goods.
So I understand first-hand the concerns of Third World artisans who may not understand why their work won’t sell without adjustments or further developing their craftsmanship. But it is important to seek advice for what will sell in a certain market and make adjustments if this is how you pay for rent, food and health care. There is still room for your individual self, but the product is tweaked with consumers in mind.
Women of Worth Uganda is a small venture in the capital city of Uganda, East Africa, that is helping a small group of its citizens pull out of extreme poverty and despair. Former posts have introduced readers to some of the projects, women and their families, and living conditions in a world far removed from most of us.
Today’s post features WOW’s jewelry and beautiful recycled paper beads that I have remade for sale in the United States’ capital city of Washington, DC.
The only mark-up is to pay for postage from Uganda. All profits go directly back to the ladies. Here are some of the for sale for between $4.00 and $35.00. Enjoy!!
Contact Sarah for info about wholesale orders.
Recently I came upon a post written by Margaret Grondorf for Bead For Life, and thought is was well-worth reprinting here. After reading her post, I was again struck by the enormity of third world poverty. Here in the US, we’ve been hit by hard economic times so it makes it hard to understand that most Americans still live like kings and queens when in comparison to the conditions of Africa’s poorest.
Margaret Grondorf writes:
“Recently, I was sent a stunning visual representation of just how large a continent Africa really is. Initially, I was struck by the creative artistry and such close approximation of how each country wholly nestles into Africa. After fully digesting the numbers, a new sense of understanding Africa’s larger problems began to emerge.
The sheer enormity of this land space presents unique logistical problems, especially as it pertains to aid, distribution of resources, and cross-continent movement (both in the physical sense, as well as the travel of information, thoughts, and ideas). Looking at all the countries, with their different cultures haphazardly smashed together in this visual aid was another poignant reminder of the competing cultures, tribes, and religions that must co-exist (often times in an even smaller, more concentrated urban area).
The author of this illustration was using it to define and actualize the concept of immappancy (insufficient geographic knowledge), and in doing so, he furthers the point of how this deficiency needs to be addressed within the global community in order to better strategize around the problems of the second largest continent on our planet.” Wonderful post, Margaret!
Because of the way that flat maps distort the size of countries, (the closer they are to the poles, the more distorted the are,) most people don’t really know just how big the African continent is. This leads many people–and the smart and powerful aren’t immune to this–to underestimate Africa’s importance.
And Women of Worth Uganda is taking care of its small corner of the world. Hard to believe that making recycled paper beaded items can make a difference for women and children, but it does. Please contact Sarah Adams for whole sale orders (see menu) although do check with her about the amount of time it can take for packages to be delivered from Uganda. It may already be time to plan for a bead party in January or February, 2011!~
But, and keep in mind how small a venture Women of Worth is, with one woman in the form of Sarah Adams running it, you can also order items from
Latitudes Fair Trade web store of Lee Owsley, Sarah’s good friend.
Here is another story from Kampala about Dora, one of WOW’s beaders, told by Sarah Adams:
“Dora had moved six times in eight years with her husband and nine children. She was one of the first women to begin making and selling WOW necklaces, which enabled the family to finally settle down in a two-room flat. It was their nicest home yet, although it was located on low ground in a small valley, near a drainage channel.
Recently a sudden flash flood which included 3/4 inch hail destroyed this home. When I went to check on them afterwards, all I could see was mud, debris and soggy mattresses set out to dry.
People were silently sorting out and washing what could be salvaged. Eight flats had been overwhelmed by the flash flood. Sarah could see by the waterline on the walls that the water had risen over five feet.
Some brick walls had collapsed from the violent flow of water.
People began to tell me about Donny, Dora’s teenaged son. Donny rescued many of the residents during the storm.
He was supposed to be in school, but during the downpour he returned home and was shocked to find a flood swirling around their building, with his family and neighbors trapped and screaming inside. Because the doors and windows were already under water, Donny climbed on the roof, pulled back a section of the roof, and pulled 3 of his younger siblings to safety. (here is one of Donny’s younger sisters–)
He then moved quickly from one neighbor’s apartment to the next, pulling up sections of roofs. He rescued a mother with her newborn, then another neighbor with her child.
In a third apartment he found an aged woman trapped, about to drown tin the rising water. Somehow he managed to knock a hole in a wall to release the torrent that otherwise would have covered her within minutes. When Donny reached the home of a set of 2-year old twins, however, he was too late. A fallen wall and the rushing water had already carried the children away as the house girl struggled in water up to her neck.
Two little lives were lost, but many were saved that day. Many reporters came to get Donny’s story but he refused to see them. ‘Why should I tell them what happened?,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t thinking, and I’m not strong enough to do what I did. I don’t even know how I did it. It was God who rescued those people! Why should I let them credit my name instead of God’s mercy?’
Meanwhile, Donny’s arms, badly scraped and lacerated from wrestling against brick, metal and glass, offered silent testimony of his instinctive devotion to his family and friends. We may never understand why so many people suffer in this world, but we know that, like Donny, we are all called to love our neighbors and trust that by God’s grace, our service makes a difference.”
And a comment from me, Cate, back in the USA, comfortable in my suburban home–yes the roof needs to be replaced but I am in no danger of having a flash flood destroy my home in minutes. You never know when purchasing fair trade items truly makes a stunning difference in some one’s life. Selling beads enabled Dora to help stabilize her family’s income enough to get a flat. And making and selling beaded items will help Dora and her family rebuild and make sure Donny gets continued medical help if he needs it.
1. Order beaded items Whole Sale from Sarah Adams (see Top Menu for her email) and sell at your next crafts’ fair, school fund-raiser or church/temple bazaar. With a small-scale operation such as WOW, one of the challenges is for the women to recreate the same items over and over to be able to offer buyers pictures of steady stock. Ask Sarah what they are her best sellers. You will NOT be disappointed!! OR
2. Check out the new Latitudes Fair Trade web store of Lee Owsley, Sarah’s good friend. Lee has been interested in the Fair Trade movement as her mission for some time. Some of WOW’s items are for sale on that site and very easy to order. Hint–Christmas and the Holidays are coming!!!!
Stay tuned for a post on Lee and her work to help WOW and families like Dora’s.
Sarah Adams, the coordinator for WOW, sent me some great pictures of one of her recent trips into Kampala, Uganda, where Women of Worth is based.
She writes about the beautiful recycled paper beads that the women make to support themselves and their children:
“There’s more to bead-making than cutting, rolling and varnishing paper. I thought I’d take readers into Kampala with me to help them get a feel for other tasks involved in this craft.
I prefer to walk to town because the traffic is so congested that for the couple of miles’ distance, my feet are faster than wheels! Some choose to weave through traffic on a motorcycle (called “boda-boda,”) but with the three times I’ve fallen off, it’s too dangerous for me!
The other means to get to town are the minibus taxis but as you can see, you’ll wait and wait in a loooooooooong line to board!
One reason the streets are full of pedestrians is because lots of shopping is done on the sidewalks with the vendors taking up space on the walkways to spread their wares on mats.
I’m getting closer to the shop I’m looking for, having twisted through this maze of vendors. In the distance you can see the taxi park where hundreds of taxi’s wait for passengers.
Here’s the shop where I can purchase clear plastic packaging, string, and the small glass beads you call seed beads. There is a second shop to go to for earring hooks, and yet another shop for the end hooks that fasten the necklaces!
Up another street, (and then up four flights of dark stairs…)
Here is a room where the varnish to coat the paper beads is made:
and they sell the varnish in bright blue plastic 2-liter jugs.
Now I will go to where people are selling scrap paper to select the paper for Women of Worth members to roll into beads! A full day!”
And, I, Cate, the friend of Sarah’s writing this blog, am once again made aware of how easy I have it. I go to one store for anything I need for my beading hobby, or I simply order it on the Internet and it shows up at my door. Plenty of colored, glossy paper lying around in magazines and junk mail. Task lighting, little bins to organize things…, etc.
Coming very soon–a post on an Internet source to order WOW bead packages for crafters, and more on wholesale jewelry available directly from Sarah!!
It’s time to place your wholesale Christmas orders! Sarah and Women of Worth need time to package your order and send it from Kampala, so the sooner you can contact Sarah (Please see info under Wholesale Inquiries,) the better!
The beads are now available in packages for crafting or resale, so look for our upcoming post featuring those goodies!
Sarah recently let me know that in addition to the fun patchwork totes that can be ordered, they have these darling patchwork aprons for order, also! Creating something beautiful and useful out of colorful scraps is a skill, tradition and necessity that goes back thousands of years.
Sarah said that the patchwork reminds her of the art of collage. I started wearing an apron only when someone made me one years ago and it saves my clothes from all sorts of house and gardening chores. I know what my brothers and sisters-in law-are getting for Christmas this year!!
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