Sartorial Saturday: Eradicating Poverty One Bead at a Time

Image by NatalieMaynor via Flickr

Everyone loves gorgeous beads (go on, you know you do!) and the beads at BeadforLife are definitely gorgeous!

BeadforLife is an amazing organisation that works with impoverished women in Uganda to help lift them out of poverty. Their beaders make gorgeous handcrafted paper beads from recycled paper and turn them into necklaces, bracelets, and earrings, so what was trash becomes beauty, money, food, and hope.

BeadforLife isn't just giving aid to people in need. Instead they are helping them to take some control over their lives and support themselves.

"Our goal is for our members to be independent of BeadforLife within 27 months by being able to support themselves within the Ugandan economy. To assist members in launching their own small businesses or in creating new revenue streams, we provide entrepreneurial training, facilitate savings accounts, and make business funds available.

In addition to buying and selling the beads, BeadforLife sponsors Community Development projects in health, vocational training for impoverished youth, affordable housing, and business development. These projects are supported with the net profits from the sale of the beads, and support not only beaders, but other impoverished people living in Uganda."

You can buy these beautiful beads online . . . or you can host your own Bead Party. You can also donate to BeadforLife (and 93 cents of every $1 you donate goes to community development work fighting extreme poverty!).

The Future HOPE Project

Being a new Mum is hard work. Being a new Mum in a developing country can be particularly challenging. In Uganda AIDS, hunger, and diseases wreak havoc on new mothers and their babies daily. Statistics show that 76 reported infants out of every 1,000 born alive in Uganda will die before their first birthday and 137 children will die before their 5th birthday.

You can make a difference by helping to provide some basic needs for new Ugandan mothers at the Mugusu S/C Maternity Ward.

The Future HOPE project is working with Hope Aid International to send care packages to Uganda to help babies get off to a bright start. You can help by donating money, or by sending a care package to the Future HOPE Project.

Care Packages should include:

3 cloth diapers
6 diaper pins
2 plastic diaper covers
1 receiving blanket
1 small travel size baby powder
1 pacifier
1 bar of baby soap

Click here for more details of where to send them and how to donate to the Future HOPE Project.

Twestival raises over $250K

Image by .imelda via Flickr

On Feb 12th, 2009 Twestivals were hosted in 202 cities around the world. As at Feb 18th the total amount raised stood at $250,000 USD. What a superb effort!

This $250,000 USD translates to 55 Clean Water projects in Ethiopia, Uganda and India . . . which means clean water for over 17,000 people.

You can still take part in Twestival by:

• Uploading or buying music at Twestival.fm.
• Buying an official Twestival t-shirt.
• Taking part in the eBay auction.
• Watching Twestival live and pre-recorded video.
• Donating to charity: water.

At the beginning of April the first of the wells funded by Twestival donations will be dug in Ethiopia. Twestival organisers will be documenting this and posting updates online.