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Aiding Artisans

When we empower women, communities flourish.

By Jennifer MillerPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Source: worldcrafts.org

It's all too easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Planning parties (not a good idea this year). Cooking and baking. Decorating. Having the best Christmas display in your neighborhood, perfectly choreographed to music or tailored to a movie theme. It's such a busy and stressful time of year that many people have seen as a silver lining in the pandemic a good excuse to cancel plans and have a more relaxed, toned-down holiday.

On top of everything else, there's the shopping! While it's often enjoyable, it carries its own set of stressors. Kids, pets, parents, siblings, friends, bosses, gift exchanges, mailmen, garbage collectors, partridges in pear trees. What should I get for everyone? How can I please them all while staying within my budget? Will my packages arrive on time? (The latter concern is more prevalent than in previous years.) Some people, in response to 2020's economic calamities, have decided to forego gift-giving altogether this year and just make charitable donations, if they can.

But what if there was very little of a holiday season, or none at all? No tree trimming or decking the halls. No parties or fancy dinners. No Christmas-card family photo shoots. No getting cozy under blankets with bowls of popcorn and laughing or crying as we quote our favorite lines from the holiday movies we love. No gifts. No wrapping or stocking stuffing. No wish lists or shopping lists. No Black Friday or other holiday sales. That's been the reality of people in many parts of the world - even, to a lesser extent, some areas here in America - since long before a worldwide pandemic hit.

It's sobering to realize that, while I'm agonizing over what to give as gifts and anticipating what I might get, people around the world - especially women - are focused on avoiding starvation, keeping roofs over their heads, and having other basic necessities such as safe drinking water, electricity, heat, adequate clothing, diapers, and school supplies. On top of all that, families are striving to avoid desperate situations that leave them susceptible to atrocities like child slavery, forced marriage, labor exploitation, and sex trafficking.

Source: neworldfairtrade.net

The Himalayan Mountains of Nepal is one part of the world where women and children are especially vulnerable. Fortunately there are organizations like Blessed Hope, The Association of Craft Producers, Local Women's Handicrafts, Aid Through Trade, and Oxfam that empower and educate women; train and provide them with useful skills; and give them fair incomes and benefits in safe, clean, and well-ventilated work spaces.

“If it wasn’t for Oxfam, we wouldn’t get this work. So thank you very much for buying,” says Durga Maharjan, owner of a weaving workshop in Kathmandu that makes beautiful yak blankets that are sold in Oxfam Shops. “Because of them, we have been able to have two meals a day. Without work, we won’t be able to feed ourselves.”

Source: greatergood.com

This Wonderful Whimsy Infinity Scarf, available at greatergood.com is one of the items handmade by women artisans in Southern India.

Another organization that dramatically changes marginalized women's lives is Blue Mango Trust in Southern India. They reinvest all profits to improve business and the quality of life of women like Panchavaranam, who was widowed at twenty and lost her newborn daughter to pneumonia a year later. Blue Mango offered her training and work in 2005. "Decisions are based on our needs... they bought a bus because it was difficult to get to work; started free yoga classes because our bodies were tense from the machines. We were not eating well so they created a subsidized canteen for only 4 rupees a meal...In the midst of all my sadness, I have found some peace here."

Source: bluemangotrust.com

"Everyone is proud of me! I am proud of me!" proclaims Surliamma, another Blue Mango employee. She has been the sole provider for her family since the death of her father in 2002.

Nagarathinum's daughters enjoy the Homework Center at Blue Mango. Her oldest daughter dreams of becoming an engineer, a potential reality made attainable by scholarships that Blue Mango awards to employees' children. "I just want my kids to get a good, steady job because life is too hard without one," she says.

Here in the United States, soon-to-be First Daughter Ashley Biden has a unisex line of hoodies called Livelihood. The hoodies are 100% made in America, and all proceeds go to education, workplace development, and job-placement initiatives in Wilmington, Delaware (where Biden was born), and the Anacostia neighborhood in D.C. (where Biden began her career in social work). She plans to expand to other areas. “We have to create more awareness around the importance of civic participation,” she says.

Events of the past year have served as a call to action to many people to do what they can to help solve problematic issues such as inequality and injustice, not just at home but also around the world. More than ever before, I've heard and seen people putting aside petty concerns for what truly matters. Perhaps that's why the song All I Want for Christmas is You has been more popular than ever this year. Like Clark Griswold when he says, "That's all that matters tonight. Not bonuses or gifts or turkeys or trees," and the Who's down in Whoville who know that all they really need is the love of their families and friends, people are holding their loved ones tight, with gratitude that they're still here, and making sure everyone knows they matter.

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