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 The Paper to Pearls™ initiative has two significant aspects. The income from necklace  sales enables families to buy additional food and medicines and to pay school fees for their children. But we didn’t want to stop there. We also wanted to provide a means to transform lives from ones of dependence to independence, to help foster the skills that individuals and families could use to remake their lives while they are in the camps and provide stability and security once they are able to return to their homes. Thus, through Paper to Pearls, Voices for Global Change has launched a program designed to provide residents of the camps with an even greater measure of dignity and self-sufficiency. We call it the “New Horizons Program", and its purpose is to provide the education and training that will be most beneficial to our beaders.
Using a large percentage of the net revenues we've received from necklace sales and from your donations, we conducted our first training projects in June of 2007.  At their request, the beading cooperatives in the camps received "refresher" training in necklace making in order to broaden and enhance their skills. This year, they are learning how to create bracelets and earrings,  which will soon be added to the Paper to Pearls jewelry inventory. Through a camp-based CARE initiative, the beaders are receiving the basic savings and cash management training they need to stabilize the income they earn from our purchase of their beads. We will continue the training throughout 2008.
Meanwhile, working with a local community organization, Paper to Pearls provided the same micro-finance training to the widows and orphans group with which we work in the town of Gulu. Because they live and work in town rather than being confined to a displacement camp, these beaders have broader exposure to bead making techniques and resources and their skills are exceptionally good. They have not received savings and cash management training, and that is what they asked that we provide.
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