James will be in Huntington Beach this weekend, sharing the Acholi Beads story as part of the inaugural Aesthetyx Story Market, an event designed to share the beautiful stories behind the artisanal and global products carried in the Aesthetyx store.  And if you mention that you’re with Acholi Beads, Aesthetyx has offered $10 off of any purchase of $50 or more during the event (remember that Mother’s Day is only a couple weeks away!)

The event is Saturday, 4pm to 8pm, and Sunday 10am to 2pm.

Aesthetyx located in the lobby of the beautiful Hyatt Regency, Huntington Beach - address and map here.  They are one of our favorite retailers, carrying a curated selection of handmade goods from around the world.  We hope to see you there!

Acholi Beads Glimpse: Spring in Uganda from James Pearson on Vimeo.

This Spring found two new babies born to our Ugandan partners, and a rebirth of their co-operative as they created a five-year vision of success and community impact.

My good friend Karl Drechsler spent the last two months in Uganda with me, sourcing materials, organizing retreats, and becoming great friends with the women of Acholi Beads.  He was so inspired by their work to improve their lives that he made a commitment himself.  Having returned to his native Seattle he is planning 27 events to celebrate the 27 women who make Acholi Beads jewelry.

Each event will feature a different bead maker, and all of them will support the wonderful work of Karl’s new friends in Uganda.  And if all goes according to plan, Karl will be back in Uganda this summer for grad school, and to make some more funny faces.

If you’d like to contact Karl about attending or hosting events, email him at karl.drechsler@gmail.com

This is great article about telling true stories in the ‘helping people’ field.  Read this excerpt, then click through for the rest:

It really is not going to matter whether we preach a sermon on eradicating poverty. It is going to matter that through our work we increased a community’s income by 20%. It is going to matter that we perfected a revenue-generating model that allows for the maintenance of the wells that we fund-raise for.  It is going to matter that through our work, 27 women were rescued and protected from the sex trade in the last month due to the donated amount. The marriage of what we do, how we do it, and why we do it, needs to be our focus and message.

This has already been a very special spring in Acholi Quarters.  In the past few weeks two of the women we partner with gave birth to beautiful new babies!  (One boy, one girl.)  In celebration of this season of birth and rebirth, we’re giving away five $100 Acholi Beads gifts to lucky customers of our online store!  Make any purchase between now and April 12 and you’ll be entered to win.  Click here to shop!

I was talking to one of the mothers yesterday, Aciro Grace, and she said that before she started working with Acholi Beads having a baby was a frightening experience - she couldn’t afford hospital care for her or her baby, and had little hope for a brighter future for her children.

But this time, her fourth delivery, she got medical support and was able to afford everything the new child needed.  Not only that, but she foresees a bright future for her newborn, full of education, good health, and success.  This is why we do what we do.  Thank you for your support.

Acholi Quarters, where our Ugandan partners live, is a hillside slum not far from the heart of Uganda’s capital city.  This is what it looks like.

This is the Acholi Quarters Rock Quarry, where the women who make our jewelry used to spend long hours every day, pounding stones into gravel.  On a good day they could bring home $1.  Walking past it every day is a sobering reminder of how far we’ve come and how much work we have left to do.

There is a new type of business emerging in the modern marketplace - business that cares for people and the planet, business that doesn’t just make a profit, it makes a difference.

This summer a select team of students will be invited to invest in such a business through Acholi Beads Internships.  If you are chosen you will have the opportunity to engage deeply with our company, learning the opportunities, challenges, and rewards of business done right.

Candidates will be chosen based on enthusiasm, mission, talent, and experience, in that order.  We are looking for people to believe in.  Once selected, Acholi Beads Interns will be matched with one of several specialized areas, such as Media/Design, Business Operations, Sales, Special Projects, etc.  And over the course of the summer we will engage them in the bigger topics we wrangle with: global disparity; gender inequality; business and altruism; and effective development.

Details:
Location: San Diego, CA 92104
Duration: June 15 - Aug 31, 2010 (flexible to accommodate academic schedules)
Compensation: Internships are unpaid, but Interns may choose to sell Acholi Beads products to make a supplementary income.

If you wish to apply, please send a letter of interest to info@acholibeads.com at your earliest convenience.  We can’t wait to work with you.

This past weekend I took the leaders of our partner Co-op, NUPECA, on a leadership retreat to the shore of Lake Victoria.  It was an incredible couple days.  The goal was to give the leaders a space to cast a vision for NUPECA, and to take ownership of that vision and the organization.  And did they ever. 

They created a five-year vision that includes 100 members, four programs (including support for orphans and adult literacy) and a committment to innovation.  Then we went to the zoo and got to pet rhinos.  Great weekend.

A guest post by jewelry designer Emily Grace Goodrich

Fortunately, it’s easy to find fresh ginger any time of the year in Southern California. This is important because it’s the ginger that sets African tea worlds apart from anything I’ve tasted before. It’s habit-forming, and the best mornings in Uganda begin with a blank page, a pen, and a shared pot of tea.

It’s been almost a week since I reluctantly rode a taxi through Kampala for the last time, toward the airport. And these are my attempts to stay behind in the smallest ways: reliving the smells, the flavors, the memories. Especially reliving the tea.

I’ve traveled many times before, often under the well-meaning premise of helping. To the slums of Mexico and jungles of Peru, to remote villages throughout Malawi, to the junkyard hideaways of the Roma in the heart of the Balkans. But this trip wasn’t about assistance, it was about collaboration. And collaboration is binding: I’m unsure of when and why, but I know it will one day draw me back to the red-earth hillsides, the sun and rain soaked landscape of Kampala.

There is something more vivid about the beadmakers in Acholi Quarters, a confidence and dignity that I didn’t often see in the women I met in Uganda, or even elsewhere in the world. They dress well, and their children are full and happy and in good schools. They laugh with ease and confidently make suggestions, they learn quickly and then become teachers themselves. Yet they are excellent students, they value knowledge and quickly absorb even the smallest drop that a trail of new ideas leaves behind.

In just a few short weeks this team of women has taken in a flood of new ideas: about things like color theory, fabric, ribbon, wire, and recycled plastic. And as much as they work together as a team, each contributes to the group in her own way. Esther is kind and patient, but has a definite competitive streak and walks a little taller when her work is deemed “just perfect.” Agnes and Gladys are among the youngest, but have the sharpest eyes for color and design. Ellen can make better fabric flowers than I can- on her first try. And Nighty consistently stands among the best and fastest learners while simultaneously wrangling a squirming toddler.

The brevity of my trip leaves me feeling as though I’ve rushed in, dumped a tangle of information in a big heap and then fled; but I am confident that the women of Acholi Beads will turn fragments into works of wearable art. When they ship the new designs to America later this spring, you will see just what I mean.

I’m wearing the same strand of paper beads around my neck that I wore in January, but I see them differently now. They are full of faces and names and stories. Though you may not know the details, yours are too.