Where once they farmed and herded livestock, Uganda’s displaced have been forced into camps for their own safety, as two decades of insurgent activity by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has resulted in burned towns and villages, abducted children and brutally destroyed lives and livelihoods.  For years, farming within the perimeter of the camps has not been feasible, since the LRA rebels would attack farmers and steal their crops. Conditions in the cramped and squalid camps have been described as a “humanitarian crisis”; malnourishment and disease are common and families in the camps must rely on international assistance in order to survive.

Against this backdrop, Voices for Global Change, through its Paper to Pearls™ project is providing an opportunity for women (and men) in the camps to earn income through the production and sale of bead jewelry made from recycled paper.  Each bead is carefully rolled by hand from cut strips of calendar paper, secured with glue, then varnished for shine and durability and assembled into necklaces.  The results are striking (a frequent comment is, “You’d never know they were paper!”).  We currently sponsor women’s beading cooperatives in five camps the Gulu District of the Northern Region, and to our knowledge are the only group working in the camps on an income generating activity.  We also work with a group of widows and orphans in the town of Gulu.

We began Paper to Pearls in December 2005. In addition to supporting the women in the IDP camps and their families, our goal has been to use this platform to create awareness regarding the situation in northern Uganda.  We wanted to help bring attention to the people's plight and to demonstrate that in the span between humanitarian aid and redevelopment assistance, there is place where the people themselves — when offered a hand — can improve their lives.