As we celebrated fathers throughout the Bay Area, families were also stopping by a ONE member’s house – Lori Saltveit – Sunday afternoon to participate in her BeadforLife party. As a partner of ONE, many members have had the opportunity to attend BeadforLIfe jewelry making parties all across the country. Lori’s party allowed families to take time out of their Father’s Day events to help mothers in Uganda.

Since 2004, BeadforLife has provided sustainable income for Ugandan women and their families by selling their beautiful jewelry, handmade from recycled paper. The women are HIV+ mothers, refugees from a brutal civil war, former prostitutes and other impoverished people. Before joining BeadforLife, all of the members struggled to get by on less than $1 a day.*

These Ugandan entrepreneurs have been supporting their families and helping their economy by creating beads to then be sold separately or as pre-made jewelry. Once the beads are made, some of them are then shipped to Colorado and distributed throughout the U.S. to volunteers interested in helping Ugandan women sell their products. On Sunday, $654 worth of beads were purchased by a dozen adults (and some kiddos too)! I was there to witness Lori continue the conversation about ONE and the difference ONE and our partners are making through intimate events such as these. As we answered questions, ONE visitor even commented, “Wow, you really are making a difference.” Lori simply responded, “We’re trying to!”

You can visit the BeadforLife website to read the background stories of all the Beaders involved. You can begin hosting your own ONE event with your friends, and check out the rest of the list of ONE’s partners on our website.

-Roscoe Mapps, California Organizer

*BeadforLife – Eradicating Poverty One Bead at a Time Factsheet Q3.08

What better way to bring in June than with beautiful hand-crafted African jewelry, good friends and a great cause?

Last weekend, ONE staff members Margaret McDonnell, Jennifer Hoerl, Kimberly Cadena, Erin Kesler and I gathered (after office hours) at Adrienne Sullivan’s house for a BeadforLife Party. Together with Adrienne’s friends, we raised nearly $800 to help impoverished Ugandans build better lives for themselves, their families and their communities through sustainable economic development.

Here’s how it works. First, industrious, intelligent Ugandans — mostly women, although a few men get in the act too — make gorgeous handcrafted beads from brightly-colored recycled paper, and turn them into an exciting variety of necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. BeadforLife buys the jewelry and sets up really handy kits with everything you need to host your own BeadParty, and then it’s just up to volunteers like Adrienne to invite a bunch of friends over. We get all this high-quality, environmentally-friendly jewelry for bargain prices, and all the net profits go back to be invested in community development projects in Uganda.

“We had a BeadforLife presentation at ONE’s DC office a couple of months ago,” Adrienne explained when I asked why she decided to throw a BeadParty. “I was so moved by the personal stories of the women who make these beads; some of them have overcome incredible hardships. I wanted to spread the word and bring their fantastic success stories to my friends and family.”

The party opened with a BeadforLife video including the stories of the Ugandans and an explanation of the artistic and eco-friendly bead-making process. Then we had a great time mixing, matching and modeling the colorful pieces. I decided to help spread the word by picking up a whole bunch of the $5 band bracelets to pass out at a bridal shower next weekend, and I’m sure I’ll be talking about BeadforLife all summer long when all my friends admire my unique, bright and beautiful jewelry.

More importantly, I know that by purchasing, giving and wearing these beads, I’m doing my part in the fight against global poverty. “BeadforLife connects the average American woman with the beauty, intelligence and power of Ugandan beaders who make beautiful products to lift themselves, their families, and their communities out of poverty,” Adrienne explained. “We all feel humbled and grateful to be a part of that.”

Learn more about BeadforLife, including how to host your own party, here.

-Emily Stivers

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