TRAVERSE CITY -- One by one, brightly colored beads are lifting Ugandan women out of extreme poverty.
A sale of one-of-a-kind necklaces and bracelets, sponsored by the Unitarian Peacemaker Needleworkers group of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Traverse City, will benefit BeadforLife and the women they employ.
"We heard about the BeadforLife project and felt that hosting a sale would be a good fit for us," said Kathy Prentice, who saw a PBS special about the nonprofit group and organized a public sale from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, at their location at 6726 Center Road on Old Mission Peninsula.
"Each bead is unique and beautiful and tells such a story," said Prentice, noting that some 500 pieces, all priced between $5 and $30, will be available for sale.
"We think this is a great opportunity to support this group that has done so much good," Prentice said.
BeadforLife began five years ago as an all volunteer effort with the goal of supporting a small group of women in the Ugandan Acholi Quarter slum. The 90 or so women, who fled their homelands in northern Uganda where rebels had burned their villages, abducted their children and killed thousands of adults, were living in mud homes without running water or electricity and earning 80 cents a day for crushing rocks by hand.
A chance encounter between BeadforLife co-founders Torkin Wakefield and Ginny Jordan and a woman who was rolling strips of paper into beads, inspired the creation of the nonprofit group that sells the distinctive jewelry through home parties and community sponsored events around the world.
After speaking with the woman, the BeadforLife founders learned she and others in her community made vivid jewelry from their handcrafted beads but did not have a place to sell it.
The American women, along with a third co-founder, Devin Hibbard, purchased several hundred necklaces to test market in North America. To date more than 6,000 bead parties have been held in every U.S. state and in several countries around the world
"BeadforLife's philosophy is that people want jobs rather than handouts. We focus on ways for people to leave poverty behind forever," Hibbard said.
Today more than 300 beaders in six groups earn support for a community of 3,000. Their incomes have increased from less than a dollar a day to five or six dollars a day, allowing them to earn their way out of severe poverty. Profits from BeadforLife sales focus on business training, health care and housing.
"The beaders are incredibly hardworking and every dollar they make goes into critical things, like sending children to school, paying for health care and saving to build a home," Hibbard said.
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