I have really been enjoying sharing some women's crafting initiatives from around the globe the past few weeks—so I set out to find some more. I hope you've been enjoying reading about them as much as I have been researching them!

These gorgeous photos are from PeopleWeaver, a larger project which, among other things, sells crafts through Etsy to help benefit the women who make them. These women are refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, living at the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement in Uganda.

Many of these women are widows, and all are caring for children or other family members. Often they are the primary breadwinner for their families. At the settlement, they raise produce for resale. However, due to the settlement's severe isolation, these products often sell below market value. They are lucky to earn $1 a day.

The women recently developed the Refugee Basket Project. These beautiful, fair trade baskets are sold in their Etsy shop for incredibly reasonable prices, and all of the money received from the sale of a basket goes to the women who made it. The shop also features some lovely jewelry crafted from rolled paper, sales of which provide funding for Kyangwali Women’s microcredit projects.

I am always inspired by these types of projects, and how so much an be done with so little. I love that microlending has become so accessible and easy—I feel like now it is much easier to make a significant impact in the lives of others around the globe. We here at cosa verde have always wanted to make charity a part of our program. Ten percent of all membership fees are donated to various charitable organizations doing humanitarian and environmental work. But sometimes I think that money would be better spent investing in other craftspeople around the world. We are going to look into transitioning over to Kiva lending to artisans. What do you think?

A few months ago, I received an email from the Development Director over at PEACE, with some truly lovely photos attached. I had to know more.

PEACE is a non-profit organization located in the Punta de Mita region of Mexico, north of Puerto Vallarta, where they work hand in hand with local communities to facilitate sustainable programs and nurture self-empowerment.
 
The photos above are from Manos Unidas por la Mujer (United Hands for Women), a program within PEACE, which provides craft and business training to local women, empowering them through micro-business. The program enables women from the region to practice their craft and earn a wage whilst maintaining the traditional role of full-time housewife and mother. Many of the women work directly from their home, making products that are completely unique, dependant upon the artist and the range of materials available to them.

“I learned to work with recycled wood and to create things I never thought I could make. What I earn I use to buy my daughter medicine and to help out my mother because she is also sick and cannot work. Being a member of Manos Unidas has also helped us feel independent and to know that us women can also work to help out with our household expenses...”
-Elena Rodriguez Ruelas, member of Manos Unidas.

All of the handmade products are created from low cost, recycled materials. The artists who contribute to Manos Unidas por la Mujer come from a range of locations, backgrounds and financial situations. Many of the products are available for purchase through their website, and every product purchased provides a much-needed income directly to the individual artist. With each sale, the artists can purchase tools and equipment to improve their craft, as well as helping to provide for their families.

As I have mentioned before, travel, and seeing cultures and people in situations very different from mine, has become a huge priority for me in my life. Cambodia is one of the places at the top of my list to get to in the next few years (especially after going to Thailand last year—I am itching to get back to that side of the world), so when I read this article on Ecoteurre last month about a Cambodian fashion collective for HIV-positive women, I sat up and took notice.

KeoK’jay employs nine HIV-positive women—generally widows and the key supporters of their families—by training them to produce fashions in their own homes. Working form home allows the women to work at their own pace in case their illness flares up, and to care for their children and families while earning an income. KeoK’jay works in conjunction with Sihanouk Hospital Center of HOPE, which provides free health care for these women and their families.

All of the products are designed by US based designer Rachel Faller. Faller provides the patterns to the women of KeoK’jay, but often they take it upon themselves to add their own touches—creating a line of unique, hand-crafted clothing and accessories. In addition to being fair trade, all products are produced with ecological impact in mind. Recycled paper and plastic bags are used in stationery lines and wallets, and the clothing lines are crafted from repurposed men's clothes or naturally low-impact-dyed new fabrics. In fact, 80% of the dyes used are made from edible materials!

KeoK’jay also presents a great degree of transparency. They are a social enterprise but are not funded by charitable support, so the price of each product reflects the full cost of production. There is an openly presented breakdown of their expenses on their website.

Products are curently only available via email and in a select few boutiques, though I hope they will soon be more readily available, as they are truly lovely designs.

Whenever something like the BP spill happens, a lot of us are left staring at our hands, wondering what we can do to help. I've been so happy to hear from members of the cosa verde community who have taken action and instead are using their hands and talents to craft goods to benefit the Gulf Coast cleanup.

Two separate Etsy shops have been set up within the Etsy community. Artists donate their work, which is posted by the shop admins, and 100% of shop profits (after Etsy and Paypal fees) are donated to several charities working in the Gulf. 

HelpTheGulfCoast donates to OxFam America and the National Wildlife Federation. They have already donated $3000 to each.

Wildlife Avatars donates to National Wildlife Federation and has already donated over $200.

(Images above by Deepwater Horizon Response and Infrogmation)

As usual, I'm late posting about important news! But this time I'm happy to be a little late, to stir up the buzz again about the wonderful, wonderful efforts of Hearts for Haiti.

cosa verde member Nora, aka transient treasures, wrote me last week to tell me about her awesome efforts as an administrator for the Hearts for Haiti shop. Here's what she had to say:

HeartsForHaiti is a collective shop comprised of 100s of Etsy sellers who donate their work to be listed in the shop. 100% of the proceeds from sales (after Etsy and Paypal fees) are donated to Doctors Without Borders for their Haitian program. To date, we have raised more than $30,000!!  The shop is managed by a dedicated team of volunteers.

As I checked out the shop, I was so happy to see work by some familiar artists—members of cosa verde! And it was fun to see work from shops I'd never come across before. I'm so proud to be a part of a community that can bring together hundreds of talented people to support such a great cause. Kudos, everyone!

You can learn more about Hearts for Haiti on Etsy, or on their blog.

Here are a few pretty (and eco-friendly!) items I found browsing their shop this morning:

(above) Recycled Fabric Heart Bib from auclairdelalune.etsy.com

Mug cozy with upcycled buttons from kaitlinvroom.etsy.com

Recycled Billboard Banner Storage Bin from NottyPooch.etsy.com aka NottyPooch Design on cosaverde!

Uplifting Salt Scrub from LaPetiteVie.etsy.com aka La Petite Vie on cosa verde!

Eco-friendly zigzag quilt from nacyanne.etsy.com

I got an awesome email yesterday from Cindy of Useful Books. Cindy has pledged to donate 100% of the proceeds from her shop to the Center of Life orphanage in Haiti for the next few weeks. A family from Cindy's church is in the process of adopting a child from the orphanage, which is right in the middle of the devastated area of Port-au-Prince. All of the children miraculously survived the quake as their building did not immediately collapse as most others on their street did. Unfortunately, two of the three houses later did collapse, leaving all 150 children, including 30-something infants, crowded into one house with no food or water.

I know many crafters out there are pledging some or all of their shop proceeds to Haiti relief. I encourage you to do so yourself, if you can afford to. To support the efforts of our members, cosa verde will waive shop fees for the next month if you are pledging part of your profits to some form of Haiti relief. Please let us know about your efforts so we can waive your fees and repost your pledges here.

Hey cosa verde kids! Happy New Year! Hope you didn't stay up too late last decade, or drink too much of whatever it is that people drink on New Year's Eve, because who wants to have a hangover for a whole decade?

Speaking of the end of the year, we here at cosa verde were busily tallyin' up all them thar charity thingies. (Liz's words. She's helping me write this, as I'm new to this whole "blogging" thing.) In English: we were able to donate almost $800 to charity! Hooray!  Here's how:

As you may know, we donate 10% of the fees we collect from our sellers to the charities of their choosing. Here's a breakdown of what went where:

• ACCION International: $43.91
• Doctors Without Borders: $53.26
• The Hunger Project: $76.25
• Rainforest Alliance: $37.16
• World Wildlife Fund: $36.71

We also donated $1 to a wonderful charity, Trees for the Future, for each store that opened on cosa verde. They actually use that one measly dollar to plant ten trees. I don't know how they do it. I'm guessing magic.

So, from the 329 stores that opened since we launched in February (329! Crazy, right?), plus over $200 that we collected at Crafty Bastards (as a suggested donation for the awesome giveaway that we ran), we were able to donate $533. The coolest part about it, though? We adopted a village!

We received a kick-ass certificate (wth a gold seal!) from Trees for the Future, which details that the money will go towards planting 5,330 trees in the village of Talupula, India, an "area devastated by deforestation and global climate change." We're happy to have Talupula as part of the cosa verde family, and we wish them well!

So, once again, thanks to everyone that helped make this possible--thanks to all of our sellers, and thanks to the lovely people that donated at Crafy Bastards, thanks to the awesome people at all of the awesome charities (keep rocking, charities!), and thanks to you, dear reader!