The Short Story
Our business exists to renew hope. We partner with women in Uganda, East Africa to create beautiful jewelry using recycled paper and plastic. Through this connection to the American market our Ugandan partners are able to rebuild their lives and families, and rekindle their hopes and dreams, after a devastating civil war. They embody the unquenchable ember of the human spirit.
Wear the story.
The Whole Story
Every human being is born bright with a natural fire of creativity, curiosity and hope. These flames fuel our goals and dreams, and empower us to build a future that is better than our present.
But for the women we partner with in Uganda, East Africa, things weren’t so simple. For over 20 years their homes and villages were the battlefield of a disastrous civil war. Children were abducted, women were beaten, hundreds of thousands died, and everyone lost someone they loved.
Our partners fled their homes to save their families and found their only refuge in a hillside slum, where hard labor in a stone quarry could earn them $1 per day.
After too many years without the resources to pursue their goals and dreams, they lost the hope that tomorrow could be better than today. Their flames were gone.
But there is an unquenchable ember in the human spirit, a burning little seed of all the hope and exuberance of humanity that is always ready to burst back to life. All it needs is the chance.
For our partners in Uganda that chance came in the form of a connection to the American market. We saw their beautiful recycled paper jewelry, helped them tailor it so that American customers would love it, and started a fair trade partnership.
And we began training them how to manage and save their money, and how to take on new entrepreneurial opportunities. We helped them open bank accounts and found their own business. And we committed to them that we would put their needs first in our partnership.
These women soon realized that with their great new income came newfound stability and opportunity. Soon their old goals and dreams started to spring back to life and they began send their kids to school, buying good food, and providing health care for their families. And new goals that they had never imagined began to surface – children going to university, land being purchased, and family homes being built.
It’s our mission to support them in achieving their dreams.
