Paper to Pearls was the unexpected outcome of a trip that Voices for Global Change president Barbara Moller made to northern Uganda in the fall of 2005.  Barbara went as one of a team of trainers on a U.S. State Department project to create a coalition of local municipal officials and civil society leaders that would lobby and advocate nationally and internationally on behalf of the region. 

Joyce Laker, one of the participants in the training, invited Barbara to visit two displaced persons camps where she had started a small beading project.  Utilizing a grant she had obtained from CARE International, Joyce had recently brought a trainer from Kampala, the Ugandan capital, to train women in the two camps in how to make necklaces from recycled paper. She thought that sales of necklaces on the streets of Gulu, the local town, would be a way to help the women.  The money wouldn't be much, but it would be something. 

Barbara, however, saw it differently. What she saw was an opportunity to provide significant income for the women if she could create a market for their work. Two months later Paper to Pearls was born.  Although starting with no experience in micro-enterprise or retail sales, Barbara saw the initiative as a natural extension of the mission of Voices for Global Change―to help give a "voice" to those who have traditionally been silent.  In this case, by helping lift desperately marginalized women out of poverty, it would be giving them a voice in their future and the future of their families and communities.

What started with 40 women between the two camps has grown to include 125 women in eight camps and three cooperatives in Gulu.  We invite you to visit our Project Impact page to gain an understanding of what having a consistent source of income has meant in the lives of these women.  With the income they are earning, they are not only transforming their lives but also gaining pride, dignity and hope for the future.  They are silent no more.