Celebrate International Women’s Day (and get your shop on!) with a great company named Same Sky. This company employs HIV positive survivors of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. During this atrocity, more than a quarter of a million women were raped. 70% of those ended up contracting the HIV virus and were left to fend for themselves with husbands tortured and killed. That means approximately 175,000 were left impoverished and sick. Many didn’t have the skills required to dig themselves out of the poverty, rebuild their families and communities.
Same Sky is a trade-not-aid initiative that gives women their power back. Their employees earn 10 times the amount that the average Sub-Saharan woman earns. This enables them to provide food, healthcare and education to their entire families. Here’s a quote from the site: “Economically empower a woman – you change her, her family, her community, her country and eventually the social and economic fabric of the entire world.”
The artisans employed here crochet together hand blown glass beads to form some incredibly beautiful bracelets. Each bracelet is hand crocheted and even has the name of the woman who crafted the bracelet on it. All of the proceeds from the sale of these bracelets are reinvested back into the company. This means that they can employ and empower even more women and expand into other regions.
The bracelets are available in 19 different colors and they even have some suggested color combinations for wearing multiple bracelets at the same time. The combination shown in this picture is called Sahara Sunset. Absolutely gorgeous and very reminiscent of natural sunsets fading into the night.
Celebrities such as Barbara Walters, Meryl Streep, Halle Berry, Katie Couric and Chelsea Clinton have all been spotted wearing these stunning bracelets. These would make a great women’s day gift for any woman, regardless of where on earth she is situated. The name of the company, Same Sky, is a big reminder of the challenges that women face all around the world and how women can be empowered by pulling together on a global scale.
Happy Women’s Day!!
