Thursday, November 30, 2006
Penny Selbee is quite taken with intricate multicolored necklaces, bracelets and earrings, which are made with small, rainbow-colored beads.
"They're beautiful. They're lightweight," she said.
There's more to these pretty baubles than meet the eye.
These handmade paper beads are helping people halfway across the world.
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Beading a better life for those living in poverty
There's more to these pretty baubles than meet the eye. These handmade paper beads are helping people halfway across the world.
"Bead for Life is actually a poverty eradication program," Penny said. "It's very exciting for the people of Uganda who've been devastated by civil war, AIDS, HIV and just extreme poverty."
Bead for Life began about two years ago when a visiting doctor's wife bought a necklace from a Ugandan woman.
"Torkin Wakefield was her name, and she came up with this idea to help with marketing," Penny said.
And the Colorado-based non-profit grew from there.
"Bead for Life in two years has actually undertaken several initiatives that include paying a fair trade price to the women for the beads that they make, sending the children to school," Penny said. "And they're actually partnering with Habitat for Humanity the world organization to start building homes."
They're estimating about 1,600 people are now being supported through this Bead for Life initiative.
Bead for Life jewelery is sold through their Web site, home parties and community events such as the Bead for Life Open House Penny's church is hosting. More than 500 events were held last year in the United States and Canada.
The beads themselves are amazing little feats of recycling ingenuity.
"They take the recycled magazines and cut triangles. And then, they roll these thing up into, some of them are tiny beads, some of them are fat beads all different colors," Penny said. "Then they glue them, shellac them and string them with little glass beads in between."
Penny says she's excited to be a part of Bead for Life.
"Just the education of Americans as to what's going on in this small portion of the world, halfway across the planet from us. I think that's an important part of what Bead for Life is doing, bringing up awareness for us."
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