Thank you for donating to our Giving Tuesday event! When you make a donation with Paypal, you can leave a note letting us know which reward you would like in exchange for your donation.
All donors get access to our monthly newsletter. $5 or more receive a thank you postcard $35 or more receive either a necklace, bracelet, animal, or bowl. $50 or more receive a t-shirt with the cause of your choice. Sizes are from S-2XL $80 or more receive both a beaded product and a shirt.
Heart Cause Options: women's rights children and youth the environment mental health food security immigrants the elderly endangered animals domestic animals poverty veterans education Ukraine cancer research disability rights LGBTQ+ BIPOC
The Bead Business Project
We are so excited to work with the women of Unity to build a new business!
Unity is an all-women village that is struggling with extreme poverty. They are experiencing a 3-year drought so severe that the women are going without food and their livestock is quickly dying out. Heart Projects has been giving them emergency aid, but we're searching for long-term solutions.
When we offered to help the women earn an income, they discussed it as a group and came up with a great idea.
Beaded jewelry is a strong aspect of their culture. The women make jewelry to sell locally and through their Etsy shop, SupportSamburu. The problem with selling jewelry is that everyone in their area knows how to do it, so the product is not in high demand.
Instead of selling finished products, the women are going to sell supplies for others to make their own jewelry.
The town where they live -- Archer's Post -- is a seven-hour bus ride from Nairobi: a large city with a market that sells jewelry supplies for half of what they go for in Archer's post.
The plan is for four women at a time to take a bus to Nairobi, buy as much as they can carry, and sell it in the village for twice as much as they bought it. We need enough seed money for the women to make the first trip. After they sell their products, Heart Projects will discuss with them any snags they ran into and ways they can improve. From there on out, they will use their profits to pay for future trips to Nairobi. Our goal is to raise $900.
Once their business grows, they can start hiring drivers to increase the merchandise they are able to sell.
The women also need a secure place to keep their merchandise and profits, so they'd like to build a curio shop within the village. The cost will be $1,700. Any funds we raise over the $900 seed money will either go toward emergency assistance, our education for women project, or the curio shop.
In addition to providing seed money, Heart Projects is providing manuals for a self-led business class. It's an incredible course, and the women are excited to get started on it.
Thank you for your interest and your involvement. If you decide to donate to our cause, thank you for that, too!