Since the O Bracelets debuted in the May 2007 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, Fair Winds Trading—our partner in the Shop for a Better World—has trained 250 jewelry makers in Rwanda, Zambia and Kenya. The women earn up to 12 times the average daily wage, allowing them to put food on their tables and send their children to school. Sales of the previous O Bracelet collection, introduced in May 2008, paid the women of Umoja, Kenya, for their work and raised an extra $47,000 to help install a water system for eight villages.
The new African Gemstone collection of O Bracelets, the fourth in the series, continues the evolution of the project, using gorgeous gemstones to create stylish pieces of wearable art. Made in Rwanda by women like 26-year old Marie-Rose Mukambasabire, the project has far-reaching impact. "If all the girls my age had as good a job as I do, the spread of HIV/AIDS would diminish," Marie-Rose says, "Most girls are infected because they fall into the trap of men who offer them material things." And to further support the education and development of girls in Rwanda, ten percent of the price of the new O Bracelet collection will go to Hope Shines, a mentoring program for orphaned girls.
One supporter of the project is Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, who notes that the Hutu and Tutsi, enemies during the 1994 genocide, are coming together to bead bracelets. "That's where reconciliation takes place," he says. "Then to see that things they make with their own hands can bring income, and to know they are linked to women in the U.S. who are interested in their products—the whole story is one of tremendous transformation in these women's lives."
The new African Gemstone collection of O Bracelets, the fourth in the series, continues the evolution of the project, using gorgeous gemstones to create stylish pieces of wearable art. Made in Rwanda by women like 26-year old Marie-Rose Mukambasabire, the project has far-reaching impact. "If all the girls my age had as good a job as I do, the spread of HIV/AIDS would diminish," Marie-Rose says, "Most girls are infected because they fall into the trap of men who offer them material things." And to further support the education and development of girls in Rwanda, ten percent of the price of the new O Bracelet collection will go to Hope Shines, a mentoring program for orphaned girls.
One supporter of the project is Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, who notes that the Hutu and Tutsi, enemies during the 1994 genocide, are coming together to bead bracelets. "That's where reconciliation takes place," he says. "Then to see that things they make with their own hands can bring income, and to know they are linked to women in the U.S. who are interested in their products—the whole story is one of tremendous transformation in these women's lives."
