BeadforLife

I think I am working at the best NGO with the coolest building in Kampala. Wow, does it make a difference to really like your work.

So, after realizing that the last organization I was at just didn’t have any work for me to do, I am now happily resituated here in Kampala again. This time, living with a couple from Boulder, who have moved here for two years to work at BfL.

BfL has thought out such a strong program, created a great work environment, and is really making a big impact in this community, all while managing to get to a sustainable point where they do not rely on any charity or donations to operate. This represents a spectacular feat that few NGOs ever accomplish.

So what makes this organization different? They have a product and a market. BfL finds women within an hour our two of Kampala, and based on a set of poverty criteria (how many people share a bathroom, how many kids are in school, what is the status of the house, last incidence of malaria, etc.), they find women who are in poverty, but also have the drive to get themselves out of it, and are just searching for a way to do it. Each recruitment cycle they bring in about 70 women who are selected to be in that particular group. The women will be taught the process of rolling paper to make beads and how to make them into beautiful jewelry. You wouldn’t even believe they are made out of paper! These women come from very poor areas, and often have had little formal schooling. BeadforLife recognized that the women had other needs that needed to be attended to first, so they have a series of seminars the women attend before they start beading to help prepare them for business.

I sat in on a bookkeeping class yesterday morning, where the women were going over multiplication and division problems. Can you imagine being a 35-year-old woman and not know how to figure out how much 3 pens cost at 50 shillings each? That is the reality for so many people here who are illiterate and have also never learned numeracy skills. In order for the women to know how much money they are spending on bead materials and how much they are making in profits, they need to learn simple math skills, albeit with the help of calculators, to allow them to really take control of their businesses and succeed. Once they have learned bookkeeping and how to make the jewelry, they go home and bead away in the hopes that the organization will buy the jewelry from them, so they earn an income. There is a maximum amount that a woman can get each week, and it is somewhere around $170. If they have a full sale both times a month when they come in, they can seriously change their circumstances. Most of these women have come from making about a dollar a day.

In fact, one of the saddest stories I’ve heard about some of the women who come into the program, is about the women who work in the rock quarries. They may be paid less than a dollar for a day’s work breaking rocks out in the hot sun. The work is crippling, and the pay is, to my mind, criminal. I can hardly believe that people would ever even do it – it just doesn’t even seem worth it, but for many, it is the difference between starving to death and eating a meal occasionally. We heard about an 89-year-old lady yesterday who works in one of these quarries for… guess how much? Less than $2 a month. Not only is someone who reaches the age of 89 very rare, but it is so incredibly sad to hear that she has no other options other than this quarry work.

I have to pause for a moment though, and write about the office building itself; it is just the coolest place to have an office here! Located on the edge of a massive swap full of tall green sugar cane stalks is a huge white mansion obscured from the road by an eight foot wall and lush green vegetation. A beautiful porch wraps around the entire second floor, and it has the air of a colonial style house, though it was built late in the British rule here. Each bedroom (of which there are many) holds one of the various administrative offices, or a classroom, or the kitchen – yes, we get fed here too! I sat out on the second story porch this morning looking out at Kampala in the distance. I was trying to imagine what the house was like as a residence for one of Amin’s generals or even a British family. The photo below shows the view.

The view from the second floor balcony - Kampala's off in the distance

So, twice a month the women return to the office, often with young children and babies in tow, and under a big white tent, they hold the infamous bead sale. I can’t begin to explain how different a bead sale is than I ever imagined, and I say infamous because Lorna has been telling me I just have to come see this for the last month or so; now I know why. I danced, I hollered, I laughed, I cried…well I didn’t cry, but I did see a LOT of beads and danced with all the women. Of course, this being Africa, I should have realized that business would be done differently here than at home. This morning we arrived early to the office, and I went off to start the research I’d been assigned, but Lorna said to come down when you hear the bead sale start. I had no idea what she meant, but I figured I would hear the director announce the start of the sale and know to come down. But then, I heard the drums. Yes drums. I went downstairs, and just about all the 70 women were dancing around in a circle, chanting, and singing and clapping. Two of the guys who work in the office had pulled out huge animal skin drums and were beating on them in time to the music. I was trying to inconspicuously watch and take photos from the edge, but one woman grabbed me by the arms and pulled me into the middle. Needless to say I can’t dance like they can, but I also couldn’t stop laughing or having an amazing time, so I don’t care. 

Finally, the dancing finished, and the women lined up with their bags of necklaces, bangles, and earrings to be inspected by the organization. The quality assurance part is hard because it does mean rejecting some women who have put a lot of hours, and definitely some money, into these bad beads, but they have also been trained a lot, so most of the beads are accepted. They just make sure that the beads are made nicely and that the jewelry is well put together, because then it is boxed and shipped to the U.S. where it is sold throughout. People can host a Bead Party, where they receive a shipment of jewelry, and women can invite their friends to come hear about the women they are supporting by purchasing the jewelry. BeadforLife pays every woman a certain amount for each piece of jewelry that is made well, but then the women don’t have to worry about whether it is sold in the U.S. The women continue to make and sell these beads for about 15 months, all while thinking of other business ideas for the future. The program is 18 months long, and in the last three months, the Entrepreneurial Team helps the women develop their own business plan – something totally unrelated to the beads. We want the women to be confident in managing her own business, ideas, and life, so this step is crucial. They strictly do not give the women ideas for businesses, but let each determine what would be best for her, and then help make suggestions on how to improve it, make it more efficient, etc. By the end of the three months, she should be completely done with bead making, and earning money through her own project.

Women lining up for the bead sale

At any one time, BfL may be helping up to 1,000 women. I’ve also noticed how happy everyone is in the office, and it really does seem like a great place to work. Twice a week there are bead sales (different groups attend them), and then the other days are a bit quieter, but still  busy.

In addition to the main BfL project, they also support a group of women further in the north through the selling of soap. The women collect and pres shea nuts, which turns into shea butter. They also collect lemon grass, and I think lavender to also be added to the soap. Then back at the BfL office, there is a whole back area devoted to soap making! On my first day of work, they had me do soap all day. It was so fun, and such hard work! A few days earlier they had mixed all the ingredients (think trash can sized quantities) in a big vat, and dumped the liquid out on a table to harden. After a few days, it solidifies and they peel it off and put it back into the trash cans to be carried over the machine. With this machine they dump all the soap bits (stuck in sheets about the size of your hand) on top of the machine. We then cut up the soap into smaller bits by hand, so that the pieces will actually go through the press. Then we dump in the bits to this funnel, and it comes out the other end in about a ¾” rope. The I Love Lucy chocolate factory feeling begins. As the rope is coming out, someone has to measure, cut, and weigh each piece of soap, making sure that it is exactly 4.0 ounces. Since most of the time it is just shy or just over the desired amount, you have to add a little piece and reweigh it – all while making sure you are cutting the soap still as it comes out so that it doesn’t fall on the floor once it reaches the end of the table. Let me tell you this is a high stress job because that soap goes fast! Then each 4.0 ounce tube must be compressed some between the hands, and the edges rolled smooth. After this, each bar is put between a slightly oiled piece of plastic into the machine that gives it its final shape, and imprints the BeadforLife logo and name on the bar. The machine must be hand cranked to put the pressure on and release it. 

Finally, the bars of soap get moved to the storage room where they are left to finish hardening for a few days, and then the packaging girls take this shrink plastic, and using a hairdryer, fit it snuggly around the soap. They slap a sticker on the front that labels the soap, and then it’s boxed and ready to be shipped off to somewhere in the U.S. Such a crazy process for ONE bar of soap! Obviously mechanization helps speed this stuff up for other companies, but they are able to employ more people here this way, and still keep up the necessary supply, so it all works out. It was also a great introduction to the organization, and my friends back in soap said they missed me when I was up in the office all day.

Well I am off to go try and get my ATM card to work. Half the time the machines just don’t have any money in them, but for some reason my card just hasn’t been working because of the way their systems are set up here – though somehow I withdrew just fine the first day I arrived. Well this IS Africa, so who is really surprised? Not this girl at least.

I added some photos to the older blog entries as well, so check them out again if you are interested.