Welcome to BeadforLife
BeadforLife is a Colorado 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization. On our website, you’ll find fascinating stories about our inspiring members who work in Uganda. Our members are impoverished, hardworking and intelligent women with a strong desire to improve their lives. Our members in Kampala and Iganga make beautiful handcrafted paper beads from recycled paper and turn them into necklaces, bracelets and earrings. While the farmers in Otuke collect the finest quality shea nuts which they sell to BeadforLife. The shea nuts get pressed into Shea Butter Soap and Peppermint Lip Balm.
Click here to see how a bead is rolled
Click here to see how shea butter is made
Our goal is for our members to be independent of BeadforLife within 18 months by being able to support themselves within the Ugandan economy. To assist members in launching their own small businesses or in creating new revenue streams, we provide entrepreneurial training, facilitate savings accounts, and make business funds available. In the rural areas our program focuses on agricultural development.
BeadforLife sponsors Community Development projects in health, vocational training for impoverished youth, affordable housing, and business development. These projects are financed with the net profits from the sale of the beads and shea butter products and support not only our members, but other impoverished people living in Uganda. See how many people we have touched in our first years.
BeadforLife is guided by the following principles:
- Creating businesses and jobs through entrepreneurial development is a more sustainable approach to poverty eradication than providing aid. Rather than becoming dependent on handouts from abroad, members build their skills and long-term capacities through meaningful creative work.
- Concerned citizens in resource-abundant countries care about the issues of extreme poverty and are willing to get involved.
- Paying the members fair trade prices allows them to meet their daily economic needs. Investing 100% of our net profits in community development projects for impoverished Ugandans allows for a long-term sustainable future.
- Working together enriches all of us.
Welcome to the Bead Circle!
BeadforLife is part of an international grassroots movement to overcome extreme poverty. Your participation in the Bead Circle makes a difference. Please join us.
See How to Help and be sure to sign up for The Bead for the latest news and stories from BeadforLife.
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Painting by
Charlotte Jorgensen |
'Kamu Kamu gwe mugaanda'
'One by One Makes a Bundle' - an African proverb
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