The World’s Greatest Earth Day with Bead For Life

I spent the most amazing Earth Day 2013 on the beautiful Santa Monica beach with 3 of the most inspiring women I have ever met: Teddy, Joan andIrene are from Uganda in Africa, and have managed to drag themselves out of abject poverty through an amazing organization called Bead for Life. Bead for Life bought these 3 beautiful women to America on a mini-tour, and Earth Day was their first ever visit to a beach. None of them had ever seen sand or the actual Ocean! I had the pleasure of standing by while they got out of the car and made their way onto the beach. It was a picture perfect Monday – a light breeze blowing against a china-blue sky. The ladies were bubbling over –  the the kind of excitement that you rarely get to experience – their shrieks and joy were infectious.

Bead for Life creates sustainable opportunities for impoverished women to lift themselves out of poverty by creating a circle of connection between women in Uganda and women around the world. Women in Uganda work hard to roll beautiful bead jewelry out of recycled paper and harvest shea nuts to make shea butter. Women in North America and Europe sell these items and educate themselves and others about extreme poverty.

If you want to get involved, you can host a Bead for Life Party, which is so much fun to do. All you need to is t
decide on your time/location, register, and they will send you a box of jewelry on consignment. Invite all your friends and have a joyous time – this way you can make a difference.

To give you a little more background on two of the women I met, Teddy and Joan, here are their stories:

Joan Ahimbisibwe and Teddy Namuyiga started their journey out of extreme poverty by rolling beads from recycled paper. Today they are among
74% of BeadforLife’s beaders that have started businesses and their overall success rate is almost double that of start ups in the United States.  They are flourishing businesswomen, brimming with gratitude, who are eager to see America and reach across the ocean to those women who have supported them along the way.

Joan and Teddy were barely surviving a few years ago. The hardship they faced would have crushed most people.  When Joan’s husband died she fled with her three children to keep from being forced into marriage with a brother-in-law. She had no job, no food for her children and soon learned she was HIV positive. Joan lived in a shack in a swamp and did back breaking work making bricks out of mud for less than $1 a day.

Teddy had three children too and was abandoned by her husband when she refused to give away her youngest daughter who was deaf. For three years she had no one to turn to. She washed clothes and dug on a farm. When BeadforLife found Teddy she and her family lived in a single room with a leaking roof and she made less than $11 a month.

Both Joan and Teddy got their break through a Uganda and Colorado based NGO called BeadforLife.  BeadforLife creates sustainable opportunities for impoverished women to lift themselves out of poverty by creating a circle of connection between women in Uganda and women around the world. Women in Uganda work hard to roll beautiful bead jewelry out of recycled paper and harvest shea nuts to make shea butter. Women in North America and Europe sell these items and educate themselves and others about extreme poverty.

BeadforLife Executive Director Devin Hibbard, says Joan and Teddy represent the billions of women who struggle to leave poverty behind and possess a unique strong desire to change their life.  “We’ve seen women face every imaginable hardship, become empowered, and succeed wildly because they had the mindset they would succeed. At the same time, we’ve seen Americans nourished on a deep level, knowing they made a life-changing difference for such determined and dignified people. The fact that these thriving women are now coming to our country is an incredible opportunity for Americans to see firsthand how their support has contributed to real women changing their lives.”

When Joan started rolling beads she doubled, tripled, even quadrupled her earnings.  She saved and now owns land and a home. She has goats, pigs, a farm and a store. Her children go to University and she employs others. Joan says, “When I think about the days when I had nothing, I feel tears in my eyes. But now that is all gone, it is my past. I am even going to America.  I can’t believe it.”

Three months after Teddy started rolling beads she bought a cow. Today she has land and a home, pigs, 500 chickens and a business that sells water to the community.  She is also getting a university degree in public administration. Her daughter attends the only school for the deaf in the country and her income has increased 40 fold. Teddy’s husband now wants her back but she says: “I cannot, I just cannot. He has apologized for everything he did to me and begs me to go back to him, but I cannot.”