Tag: poverty eradication

Why I am A BeadforLife Volunteer

by standinlovejen, posted in Beadforlife, Female Entrepreneurship, Passion, Purpose, volunteering

My love and passion for BeadforLife began in the summer of 2009.   I vividly recall the overwhelming emotion swelling inside my heart as I carefully unpacked my first sample collection of beautifully colored, handmade Ugandan jewelry in my first-floor office at local, family owned fine jeweler in Las Vegas, MJ Christensen Diamonds.

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The intense afternoon sun beamed like a laser on the recycled-paper beads the way light strikes the table of a diamond and disperses an extraordinary display of rainbow colors .   Many years came to pass before I understood how this journey would unfold, but I knew one thing for certain: we were destined to be together.

BeadforLife’s mission is to create sustainable opportunities for women to lift their families out of poverty by connecting people worldwide in a circle of exchange that enriches everyone. 

Benefits of BeadforLife.

B.   A breakthrough in finding BALANCE in life.

Serving as a voice for the 1.7 billion people surviving on less than $1.95 a day undoubtedly introduces a more balanced perspective.

E.  The gift of EXPLORATION.

Find hidden talents as you learn to advocate for the eradication of poverty by speaking to community groups, sharing the vision of entrepreneurial freedom, and creating marketplaces for their incredible handmade jewelry.

A.  Go on an ADVENTURE of a lifetime.

As a Community Partner volunteer, every step of the way is an absolute adventure complete with new friendships, new ideas, and new awareness!  Your journey will be unique, and your story unlike any other.

D.  DISCOVER yourself, the women in the programs, and your true potential in life.

F.  It’s FUN and FULFILLING to volunteer and join hands with like-minded changemakers around the world!

O.  Receive and give the gift of OPPORTUNITY.

Not only will you be providing hope and inspiration to deeply impoverished women across the globe living on less than $1.95 a day, you will receive unlimited personal growth opportunities in exchange.

R.  The RECOGNITION that we are all connected as global citizens.

L.  Surround yourself in LOVE.

This is an organization oozing with love.  From the moment I first met co-founder Torkin Wakefield, to the time I spent with her daughter, Devin, on the ground in Uganda, it was apparent:  LOVE fills every space of the work they do.  Love for serving others, love and honest appreciation for the volunteers and Ugandan staff,  love for the bold mission that drives their work everyday.  Love is rolled into each and every bead, and love is rolled into the hearts and minds of the women who are served by the numerous life-changing programs.

I.  Realize the IMPACT your contribution makes.

Friends and family of the generous Las Vegas community have raised nearly $200,000 to date for BeadforLife, directly impacting over 40,000 women and families in Uganda and East Africa.  This brings them closer to reaching their ambitious goal of providing           1 million deeply impoverished women worldwide with entrepreneurial training by 2017 via a 6-month mobile classroom called Street Business School.  

F.  Practice your FAITH, and FACE your FEARS.

Traveling to Uganda as a volunteer communications correspondent was the result of ground-breaking, fear-busting intention!  After grappling with the inherent anxieties of a lengthy overseas journey, coupled with my personal struggle with anxiety disorder, I learned there was no way around it, only through it.  I just had to do it and “do it afraid”.   It took 6 years for me to take that step, and I am so glad I did.

E.  EMBRACE your inner truth.

We cannot deny that to which we feel called.  Are you longing to serve in a particular capacity, using your unique gifts and talents? What would you do? With whom would you like to share these gifts to serve a higher purpose? I invite you to ask yourself these questions and when you discover the initial answers, ask “why?” to each layer and you may just discover a little bit about your inner voice waiting patiently to be released to the world!

Stand In Love,

xo, Jen

Jennifer Miller is a Las Vegas-based dōTERRA Wellness Advocate, Speaker, and Marketing Consultant.  She volunteers as a Community Partner for global nonprofit BeadforLife, whose mission is to provide entrepreneurial training to 1 million impoverished people globally by 2027.   Click here for a listing of upcoming events, or Follow her on instagram or Facebook @standinlovejen .  To host your own BeadforLife fundraiser or dōTERRA Essential Oil party, please email: deboughjl@gmail.com .  

 

Answering the Call of October 17th

by standinlovejen, posted in Beadforlife, Essential Oils, Female Entrepreneurship, Purpose

On the 17th of October 1987, defenders of human and civil rights from every continent gathered on this plaza. They paid homage to the victims of hunger, ignorance and violence. They affirmed their conviction that human misery is not inevitable. They pledged their solidarity with all people who, throughout the world, strive to eradicate extreme poverty. “Wherever men and women are condemned to live in extreme poverty, human rights are violated. To come together to ensure that these rights be respected is our solemn duty.”  – Father Joseph Wresinski

ONE voice matters.

YOUR voice matters.

We all have unique gifts for sharing love and compassion in the world.   As humans, we are wired for connection, and long for a sense of purpose while on the Earth.   We want to matter.  We want to belong.  We long to be part of something larger than ourselves.  What is that mission for you?  What do you want to be part of?  How do you want to make a difference in this life?

Father Joseph Wresinski declared 30 years ago, on the Trocadero Human Rights Plaza in Paris before 100,000 people, that to live in poverty is to be denied basic human rights.  His voice inspired the observance of October 17th around the world, and resulted in the United Nations recognizing this date 5 years later.  Eradicating poverty is now at the helm of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.  

Would you like to help eradicate poverty in our lifetime?  Get involved in one of two ways today!

Host a BeadforLife Marketplace

Want to share the beauty of handmade Ugandan jewelry with your friends and family? This holiday season marks the final chance to order your own Marketplace and raise funds and awareness to end global poverty.  As this international NGO strives ambitiously to lift 1 million people from poverty by 2027, they recognized the importance of re-evaluating their own business model, just as they teach the women in their entrepreneurial training programs.   As a result, their innovative 6-month Street Business School Program is replacing the 18-month Beads to Business model.  They discovered they could reach more women and families at a lower cost per participant teaching the core of the original 18-month model.   This proven and effective program teaches the fundamentals of launching a small business and puts deeply impoverished  women to work faster.

Join dōTERRA’s global community.

dōTERRA, Latin for gift of the Earth, is more than natural health and wellness.  This 2-time Forbes Best Companies award winner wants to help people live lives free of disease and poverty while empowering communities with the tools needed to become self-reliant.

Through the  Healing Hands Foundation, launched in 2012, the company is making unprecedented progress with on-going partnership projects in Bulgaria, Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, Nepal, Madagascar, and Somaliland.   dōTERRA harnesses nature’s most powerful elements and shares these gifts through a global community of Wellness Advocates.  As a community, we empower people to advocate for their own health, and we contribute to the global mission of helping others live outside of disease, poverty, and dependence.

Want to join me in this deep dive into your life’s purpose? Learn more here.

Sending love to all the heavy and burdened hearts in the world,

Jennifer

P.S.  Bonus video to learn how the oils you use make a difference in the lives of people around the globe!

 

Jennifer Miller is a Las Vegas-based dōTERRA Wellness Advocate, speaker, and marketing consultant.  She volunteers as a  Community Partner for global nonprofit BeadforLife, whose mission is to provide entrepreneurial training to 1 million impoverished people globally by 2027.   Click here for a listing of upcoming events, or Follow her on instagram or Facebook @standinlovejen .  To host your own BeadforLife marketplace or essential oil party this fall, please email:  deboughjl@gmail.com

 

Female Entrepreneur Spotlight

by standinlovejen, posted in Beadforlife, People
Aidah Nannyunju with her feature story
Aidah Nannyunja published in Kampala newspaper!

I first met Aidah Nannyunja on the 15th of July 2015, the morning I arrived in Uganda.  Eager to learn and understand all departments of the BeadforLife organization in Kampala, I enjoyed the day working in the inventory room alongside small group of Ugandan women including Justine, Evelynn, Lillian, Aidah, and Maria-  some, former BeadforLife program graduates.   Recovering from the long journey, I sat peacefully in this open aired room fully absorbing my surroundings.  Colorful recycled paper samples pinned to a cork board on the wall to my left above a wicker stand housing towering stacks of hand-woven palm branch baskets and compartmentalized wood trays holding mini silver BeadforLife logo tags added as the final touch to each piece of jewelry, rendering it ready for international shipment.   A small portable radio played on the long rectangular table around which we sat quietly working, and quietly wondering what each other’s stories would say if they were broadcast over the speaker like the sermons on the radio.   I enjoyed the simplicities of this complex group of women, and sometimes young men- if Joseph and Jimmy had completed their work out front meticulously hand-stamping new burlap fabric  gift bags under a tented canopy in the front lawn of the Kampala residence, turned place of business, located on Mpanga Close Rd, plot 26.

new gift bags
new gift bags stamped by Joseph and Jimmy
color way samples for beads
bead color board inventory room Kampala

Aidah, sitting at the end of the table closest to the sunlight and driveway on the east side of the house worked quietly, but listening, like a young child pretending not to understand an adult conversation while taking in each word and digesting its contents.

It wasn’t until two weeks later that I would have a chance to capture Aidah’s story and personal triumph over the war on poverty.

I had just returned from a full day of travel and field visit in Lwamaggwa with Agnes, my sponsored child with World Vision.  The next morning, as I entered the office, soaked to the core with sweat from my mile and a half trek from Kataza neighborhood carrying my yellow racelite backpack stuffed with notebooks, water bottles, journals, and the essentials for any day out of the house, along with my camera bag strapped cross body, making me feel like a pack mule each time I arrived to work.   Beatrice, a vibrant BeadforLife staff member approached me and greeted me with the customary pleasantries I have grown to appreciate in Uganda.  Looking you in the eyes, taking the time to genuinely ask how you are feeling that day, and offering hugs- one on each side- she enthusiastically announced, ” Jennifer!  I have an exciting story for you to write!!!”.   After unpacking my things and collecting myself for a day to reflect on Agnes’ visit, I stopped in the kitchen to make a cup of Ugandan black tea and seasoned it with a couple shakes of tea masala- a multi spice add-in infusing the tea with the aromas of India.

Beatrice and Evelynn were waiting expectantly for me in the inventory room when I arrived and from behind Beatrice’s back, she pulled out one of Uganda’s daily newspapers titled “Yiiya Ssente”.  Guess who was on the cover?…..   BeadforLife’s very own, Aidah Nannyunja!

The two page feature story detailed the Aidah’s triumph over poverty, and her growing business of inspiring and mobilizing more women in Kampala to believe in their ability to become entrepreneurs!

“I used to sweep the dust in the streets of Kampala, like so many women you see here.  That is where BeadforLife found me the day I joined the 18 month Beads to Business Program.”   Now, through the skills I have acquired, I have a beaded handbag business, a retail clothing shop, and a group of women I mentor!”

Aidah graduated from BeadforLife in August of 2013.  The commemorative group photo framed and hanging on the wall of fame in the corridor of the Kampala office like the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, observed by so many and photographed by appreciative visitors daily.   Aidah remembered the exact date of her first bead sale, December 22, 2011.   She never imagined she would become the chair person of the women’s empowerment group Tukola Balaba featured in that newspaper article.  Founded in the Kawempe District and 50 members strong, Tukola Balaba is thriving and inspiring women with alternatives to generational poverty.

Aidah showing me a sample from her handbag business
Aidah showing me a sample from her handbag business

BeadforLife’s 10 year vision to Ignite One Million women out of poverty by 2027 is incredibly bold, and without question, engaging!    Aidah’s story reinforces the validity of BeadforLife’s work and stands as a testimony of over  40,000 Ugandans served to date by the programs.  Please feel empowered to share this message of hope with your personal spheres of influence.

One size doesn’t fit all.   We are many parts.  We are all one body.  The gifts we have, they are given to share.  May the spirit of love, make us one indeed.  

Try taking a personal challenge this week:  Ask yourself ,”What skills are in my toolbox that I may share to help Ignite One Million?”     Am I connected locally with a non-profit or other group that supports the extreme poor and would like to partner?  Would my faith-based group consider hosting a “Mission Marketplace” this holiday season? http://www.beadforlife.org/faith to create awareness and engagement.

Do I have connections to entrepreneurial groups who would love to support this mission?  Or more simply, ” Do I have the fortitude and will to buy a small bag of loose beads and tell the story to as many people as I can, handing a bead to them in remembrance, until the last loose bead is gone?” http://www.beadforlife.org/shop/uganda-loose-beads.html

Whatever your personal level of challenge allows, accept the invitation to take that step of faith.  Allow yourself to grow, to evolve, to discover your potential for change, just like the women in Uganda.

The Face of Micro Enterprise: Becka Babwairani

by standinlovejen, posted in Beadforlife, volunteering
Becka Babwairani in front of produce stand
Becka Babwairani in front of produce stand

Have you ever wondered what it looks like to have a small business in a developing nation?  Please allow me to introduce you to Becka Babwairani, a 45 year old mother of 5 girls in Uganda.  Her husband left her 3 years ago because she was unable to produce a boy for him.  Left to her own devices to support a growing and needy family, she worked as a digger on a nearby farm.    After attending BeadforLife’s Street Business School training in Bulogo with the Bulogo Women’s Group, Becka learned she had the potential to be one savvy entrepreneur!  Pictured above with her sweet snacking bananas, eggs from chickens she rears, as well as cooking oil she sells for as little as a tablespoons at a time (100-200 UGS about .05$).   Becka started her business selling cooking oil, a Ugandan staple, bit by bit.  Gradually, she reinvested profits to grow and expand her businesses that also include a small retail shop in the front room of her home, where she sells g-nuts (local nut similar to a peanut, used to make a delicious sauce poured over cooked beans)  biscuits, laundry soap, sugar, and other small commodities.   While we were talking, a young boy stopped to buy some bananas and she instructed one of her beautiful daughters to “be sure to put that money in the banana business compartment”.   Becka keeps track of her businesses separately, a result of the bookkeeping training session.  She understands the fundamental business principles of ROI, and is now empowered to monitor the individual successes of her small businesses.   Seated on a simple hand hewn wooden bench with 3 of her girls, Left to right: Lovinsa 18, Sylvia 15, Gloria 7, and her grandson Jeffrey on her lap, she shared with us ripple effect her training is having on her community, in particular her faith community.  According to Becka, she has started a “hunger” for education and business training in her church community, and feels fortunate to be a testimony of change and access to training and opportunity.

“Faith plays a very important role in business,”  shared Becka, ” you do not cheat your business, you must be honest and fair about pricing, and you will reap the benefits.”

It didn’t stop there, Becka later on shared in her story that her goal is to move to the larger town of Nmendwa in order to further expand her businesses.   As the leader in her home, and a leader in her church, Becka seeks to provide the best for her families, modeling a hard work ethic for her 4 girls whom she hopes to keep in school and continue to provide for their school fees- a right reserved for those with income capacity.

I am drawing near the end of Maya Angelou’s autobiography, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings“, and have been contemplating the power of education.   Through her incredibly descriptive account of her life’s hardships, I have been afforded a glimpse into the history of racial discrimination, been exposed to a wealth of rich vocabulary, and have pondered the transformational impacts of educating women.   Each causing me to reflect, research, and mull them over in my relentlessly analytical mind.  Maya, like Becka, displayed a level of determination in life that is driven from within, from a place of deep-rooted injustices caused to her, and makes the choice to overcome.

” Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently”- Maya Angelou

Becka holding grandson Jeffrey, with daughters Lovinsa, Sylvia, and Gloria
Becka holding grandson Jeffrey, with daughters Lovinsa, Sylvia, and Gloria
Becka's small retail shop
Becka’s small retail shop
selling to neighborhood client
selling to neighborhood client

Never underestimate your own or another’s potential.

For more information on how you can help deliver the promise of opportunity to a woman living in extreme poverty in Uganda, please click the link below!

Tomorrow the “Ignite One Million” campaign will go public!

http://vegas.ignite1million.org

http://www.beadforlife.org

Meet Gertrude 

by standinlovejen, posted in People

Today I woke with the anticipation of meeting with a small group of women called the “special group”.  This group is comprised of a mix of previous Beads to Business members.  Some graduated as early as a two years ago, some pros go back to 2011.  This group of woman have gained tremendous business skills, and all have at least one other business in addition to Bead making!  Some have two and three small ventures due to the engaged mentoring model at BeadforLife.    This group specializes in rapid production and intricate designs.

The morning began with a few women arriving early to the monthly sale event, bags in their hands… Extra pre rolled beads, wire, thread, needles, and candles in the event quality control check is unable to accept the uniformity of the beads they have created.   The women travel from long distances, and often spend a minimum of one hour crammed like sardines inside of an overcrowded (22 person meant for only 14 ) non -air conditioned matatu.   The traffic in Kampala is an entirely separate post, which I will share with you a little while later.

The women are given trays to sort there wares for sale and hope eagerly that their products meet the production sample and measurements given to them ahead of time.  As this is an advanced group of beader makers, the overall acceptance rate of pieces is very high.   Each woman waits in line for her items to be meticulously inspected one by one by a minimum of two staff members- this is done to ensure the highest quality products for purchasers in the U.S. markets.    I had no idea how much work went into the sale of the beads at the office, as well as the length of time it takes to complete a sale.   I had the pleasure of sitting with each woman today and talking to them about their families, children, and how they are so appreciative of BeadforLife.

Two women in particular left an indelible  mark on my heart.  One was named Beifa, and she had the warmest spirit.  Her energy was calm, sweet, and had such an innocence that drew me to her like a magnet.  When you don’t speak the same language, body language is so incredibly reliable for starting conversations and determining who is willing to open up and share with you.  Beifa shared that she has four children and is able to pay for school fees for each one of  them! She kept her head down when she spoke, and even maintained a lower than usual gaze.  Partially shy, and a bit amazed that I wanted to hear about her success coming from extreme poverty to running a small business selling a few pillowcases, bed sheets, and a few assorted articles of clothing.  She buys supplies in local market and sells them at her business stand near where she lives.  Most of the “new clothing” purchased at small business stands in local neighborhoods actually comes from donations in America – various aid organizations.  These are sold as new items and are a luxury here for many.  She is one of the amazing success stories and proof that BeadforLife’s holistic model of poverty eradication is effective and sustainable.

Gertrude, is  another beauty.  While most members grabbed a small chair to sit and wait, Gertrude took a seat on the ground under a mango tree and rolled extra beads and perfected each of her designs prior to presenting them to the quality control staff.  Noticing her alone and off to the side, I engaged her and asked her to share her voice with you all on camera.

If you would like to know what a truly BRAVE woman looks like- it is Gertrude.  She speaks very little English, but didn’t hesitate to try to communicate with me.  I ask a LOT of questions ( I love to understand people and believe we learn best by asking questions and listening intently) – . Gertrude’s other business is collecting scrap aluminum, discarded copper wires, discarded plastic and other scap.  She buys the scap and re sells it for a profit to buyers in need of materials.  She is a model of bravery and success and I am honored to share her with you!