Shaylas are hijab, the scarf head covering that Muslim women wear, usually as part of the abaya or traditional black caftan. The shayla tends to be larger than the typical hijab; when wrapped over the head, it covers the shoulders and reaches below the bust.
As Fiona explains it, Muslim women in Abu Dhabi love to add bling to their shaylas. They often pile their long hair high on their heads, covering everything with the shawl, which they adjust so that their shoulders are not only draped but sparkle with patterned sequins and small crystals. And, if Fiona has her way, paper beads. Her idea was to commission two shawls to be made that incorporate the beads and use them as samples to show to her Muslim friends. “Who knows”, she says, “this may take off!”
Fiona’s amazing idea has certainly added “bling” to our project, affirming once again the fascinating ways in which women support women everywhere. And we think the addition of the paper beads looks wonderful!
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Since November 2008, Susan Cannarella has made beautiful bracelets and earrings using Paper to Pearls beads. The sale of her work raises money to support the Kiwoko Hospital, a rural bush hospital in central Uganda that is supported by the ISIS Foundation. To date she has raised over $6,800 for ISIS and Kiwoko.
We learned of Susan's story recently when she placed an order for additional bags of beads. Inspired by what she is doing, we asked her to tell us more.
Susan works for Aspen Re America, a company that believes strongly in global corporate and social responsibility and commits to donating annually to the ISIS Foundation's work in Nepal and Uganda. In September 2008 she had the opportunity to visit Kiwoko Hospital and witness the great work being done there to help the children and families of the region. "It was a lifelong dream of mine fulfilled."
Susan also explained how she began working with paper beads. "One day a week a craft group meets at the hospital. This group is comprised of women who are HIV positive. These women make items to be sold at the hospital craft shop to support their families. One of the crafts I saw them making were rolled paper beads using recycled paper. This inspired me to make jewelry incorporating these beautiful and unusual beads."
We salute and celebrate Susan's wonderful work, and how she is not only supporting ISIS's project at the Kiwoko Hospital but the Paper to Pearls' beaders as well.
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When it comes time for market days, the women put the finishing touches on their necklaces and prepare for a visit from the local P2P staff. Each co-operative gathers on a designated day with their completed products and the printed order that was distributed at the beginning of the month.
Our group of child mothers is particularly enthusiastic; they are always sitting joyfully under a large mango tree with their necklaces displayed when we arrive. When they see us arrive we are greeted with shouts of welcome ‘Apwoyoba!’. We first greet all the women individually, as is custom in Uganda, before settling down on bamboo mats to look through their proudly displayed necklaces. Comparing the products to the order from the United States, we go through the necklaces one by one identifying mistakes that can be corrected on the spot and documenting each necklace that is to be purchased. Each beader is considered a separate ‘seller’, is paid independently and signs off on the purchase. During the last set of market days several of the women in this group were so amazed at their success that they cheered and sang when they added their signature to our books.
One of the women in our Women of Ester co-operative was so excited with the amount she earned that she exclaimed ‘I am going to eat CHICKEN tonight!’ Due to the conflict over the past two decades, there is a lack of livestock in the North and chicken has become a prized meal. Her family was able to eat like kings, with enough to spare for school fees and some medication.
As we gear up for another set of market days, the women assure me at every meeting that P2P will be so pleased with their products. I see them swelling with pride as their work continues to improve and gain attention from the international community.
Meghan Ryan
P2P Project Supervisor
Gulu, Uganda
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( 3.1 / 83 )Fiona Fitzgerald, our newest Personal Representative, signs her emails, "From the land of the sand." She lives in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, half a world away from her native Australia. Fiona read about Paper to Pearls in a local magazine and immediately felt a connection to the project. "It sounded like such a wonderful cause, and when I went to the website I was convinced this was something I wanted to do. Many Western women are in the UAE because of husbands who are doing contracting work and we have a lot of free time while our children are in school. Raising money to help the women in northern Uganda is a perfect way to be busy and feel I'm doing something meaningful. And everyone absolutely loves the jewelry and the story."
Although P2P Personal Representatives generally operate as small retail businesses—buying wholesale and then selling retail and retaining the profits—Fiona has generously decided to return the majority of the money she makes to P2P. "The pleasure of this project is knowing the good it is doing for women in poverty, helping them to move from a state of need to one of possibility and opportunity. That's all the payment I need...and besides, this is fun!"
Fiona sent us pictures from one of her events. I particularly love the dancing figures from her sales table; they make me of think of the dancing spirit in all women and how my beaders have reason to dance again because of the open hearts of women like Fiona Fitzgerald.
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Four colorful necklaces draped over a white folded stand, one display among 60 in a handsome exhibit of "Paper Jewellery", a new show at Milan’s Triennale Design Museum. The work of peasant women in northern Uganda thus placed side by side with that of the finest jewelry artists in the world. As I walked the exhibit, I thought yet again of the evolution of our beaders’ work from simple to exceptional and how it came be chosen by the curators of "Paper Jewellery" for inclusion in this amazing show.
During the afternoon press conference, I listened to the Triennale’s Vice-President exhort the “women of Milan” to think about paper in a new way, to consider how this humble medium can be reworked by skilled hands and become fashionable art. “Ladies, will you wear paper jewelry?” he challenged the women in the room and beyond. “Can you accept that it can be stylish, beautiful and fun, and that it creates its own fashion statement?”
From the beginning, the reaction to our beaders’ work has always been, “I can’t believe it’s made of paper.” At the crowded opening of the exhibit, this was a consistent reaction to many of the items on display. Fanciful cutouts, layered cardboard, paper bent, twisted and pleated into dramatic shapes. Our paper beads were not the most creative or stylish in the room, but they fit in perfectly; and among all the stunning, often startling pieces, they are probably the most unique: necklaces that take paper into the realm of fashion while taking women and their families out of poverty. Paper as pearls, paper as beauty, paper transformed and transforming. Northern Uganda―poor and marginalized, torn apart by war and displacement―now has another story to tell.
"Paper Jewellery" will be in Milan until October 25th. It will then travel internationally, returning to Italy in July 2010, where it will be on display at the Paper Museum of Fabriano in Umbria throughout the summer.
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