I am so excited for October’s Box of Blessings, because it features products from Haiti. Our Haiti trip was filled with so many stories and experiences that are still fresh in my mind. It makes your purchase of this box more personal as I imagine the faces of artisans, thanking us for purchasing their products, which is sustaining them and their families with regular, fair wages. I hear the laughter and singing as the artisans work together assembling necklaces, Christmas ornaments, or sewing scarves. Their hearts full of gratitude for the job, wage, and dignity these purchases bring.
The earrings and bracelet come from the Apparent Project. This artisan group started from a burden for the “orphans” of Haiti. Shelly, the founder, came to Haiti to adopt and after staying at the orphanage for a short time, she learned that once a week parents would come by to see the “orphans”. These children had families, but the parents were unable to provide for them so the kids were brought to the orphanage. Shelly knew she had to do something for these parents to enable them to provide for their families so that they were empowered to keep their family unit intact. This realization led to the Apparent Project, which is located in Port Au Prince, Haiti and employs over 300 Haitians. They provide daycare for the employees children, so mothers and fathers can work, providing for food, housing, and preventing child abandonment.
The process in making these earrings and bracelets, starts with the clay being mixed with water to produce the correct consistency. This clay is used by the extremely poor to make dirt cookies for food. It’s such a neat illustration of change in the lives of those working for fair wages and using what the poor use for food and making it into beautiful pieces of jewelry to sell. Each bead is then uniquely crafted by hand and rolled into different shapes. They are left in the sun to dry, then painted by hand, glazed, and processed in a kiln to harden the bead. Once this is completed, the beads become part of the jewelry assembling process, made into beautiful, unique necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.
One of the workers at the Apparent Project shared her testimony with us and it was so rewarding and encouraging to see how your purchases truly are making a difference in people’s lives. Senise was a young mother unable to take care of her child. She was considering giving her child to an orphanage, a place where the child would have food to eat and provision for her life. At the orphanage she met a lady, who told her exactly what adoption is and how she may never see her child again. Senise decided she would rather suffer with the child than live without her. She met Shelly soon after and started making beads and working for Apparent Project. Today, she is managing 15 employees and is providing for her and her three children.
The basket is woven with palm leaves. The leaves become white after drying. I love using these baskets for storing rings or keys. These are made by artisans who work for 2nd Story Goods. Located north along the ocean in Gonaives, sits a small village called Jubilee on the edge of the city dump. This “slum” is where so many beautiful things are created and Haitian lives are being changed.
2nd Story Goods has a passion for changing the question of “What do you need?” to “What do you have?” and using development of skills and education to end the cycle of poverty and bring dignity and sustainability to these people, who have only known poverty as a way of life.
The dried plantains are a Haitian snack. Plantains are more starchy than bananas and are better fried, boiled, or dried rather than eating raw like a banana. Often with our Haitian meals there would be a few fried plantains included as a side. I think they are delicious, especially with rice and beans.
The Apparent Project is the poverty fighting cause of the month, where $3 from every box is donated to help develop new skills, programs, and aid in emergency medical care.
Thank YOU for subscribing to the Box of Blessings and helping to make a difference in impoverished people’s lives. As we all work together to end the cycle of poverty it truly brings HOPE and PURPOSE to the poverty mindset.
Links to learn more about these artisan groups and other ministries in Haiti.
