BeadforLife, one of ONE’s partner organizations, was featured on the Today show last week. The segment illustrates how BeadforLife connects women in the United States with women in Uganda, who are working hard to lift their families out of extreme poverty. The Ugandan women make beautiful handcrafted paper beads from recycled paper and turn them into necklaces, bracelets and earrings, which are then sold through “BeadParties” throughout the U.S. As one of the beaders says while proudly showing off the home she was able to purchase from the jewelry’s proceeds, “All the plans I had were the plans of a poor woman but now I no longer call myself poor.“ Talk about powerful.

Check out BeadforLife to meet the beaders and to learn about how you can host a BeadParty in your community.

-Margaret McDonnell, US NGO Partnerships & Faith Relations Team