Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Liz Waid.
Voice 2
And I'm Joshua Leo. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier to understand no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
In a house in Chicago, United States, a group of women sits looking at colorful jewellery. They put the jewellery on their necks and wrists. It is made of small, round, paper beads. One of the women talks about the people who made this jewellery. She tells the women that buying this jewellery helps poor families in Uganda. This is a bead party. It is part of the work of a very special organization. Today's Spotlight is on the group Bead for Life.
Voice 2
Achan Grace sits working in her home in Mukono, Uganda. She smiles. She seems very far from the women in Chicago, but they are actually closely connected. Only a few years ago, Achan Grace was asking people on the streets for money. She did not have a job. She had no way to feed her five children. But then she met a woman from Bead for Life. The woman asked Achan Grace to work with her, making beads. People would wear these colorful beads around their necks and wrists. And Achan Grace would be paid for her work.
Voice 1
Bead for Life started with four women. Torkin Wakefield, Ginny Jordan, and Devin Hibbard were walking down a street near the city of Kampala, Uganda. They saw a woman named Millie rolling pieces of paper to make beads. But the women learned that Millie had no place to sell her beads. She worked in a rock quarry breaking large rocks into smaller pieces. This was very hard work. And Millie only earned one dollar a day. So the women bought Millie's beads.
Voice 2
When the women returned home, their friends liked Millie's beads very much. So the women got an idea. Torkin returned to Uganda. The other two women developed a way to sell beads. Torkin asked local Ugandan women to teach and attend bead-making classes. They developed different kinds of beads and improved their skills. And in 2004, the women started the organization Bead for Life.
Voice 1
All around Kampala, women sit and roll old paper into small round beads. The women sell these beads to Bead for Life. Bead for Life then sells these beads to people in North America. And this money goes back to the women in Uganda.
Voice 2
Before Bead for Life existed, no one was selling paper beads in Uganda. Women knew how to make them, but there were no places to sell them. Three years later, paper beads are everywhere. Stores and other aid groups are selling paper beads. Many poor women are finding a new way to make money for their families. Bead for Life helped to create a new business in Uganda!
Voice 1
Bead for Life does more than buy beads. After a woman works making beads for six months, she is able to take more classes. She attends business classes. Bead for Life teaches the women about saving money, about getting loans, and how to run a successful business. Bead for Life wants these women to do more than make beads. It wants them to become business owners.
Voice 2
When the women are finished with the class, they create business plans. They can also request business grants, or gifts of money to start a new business. 67 percent of the bead makers have started their own businesses. Bead for Life wants these business women to be able to support themselves without the help of any aid organization.
Voice 1
But Bead for Life also works with people who do not make beads. The organization offers job training for young people. There are classes about computers, medicine, car repair, food service, and even hair cutting.
Voice 2
Bead for life also works on health issues in Uganda. Bead makers can get tested for diseases. Bead for Life gives out mosquito insect nets for people to sleep under. They give condoms to prevent sexual diseases, and eye glasses for reading. But people do not pay for these medical services with money. Instead, they can pay with paper beads.
Voice 1
And finally, Bead for Life also helps poor people get low-cost housing. One of the ways the organization does this is with Friendship Village.
Voice 2
Bead for Life bought eighteen acres of land near the city of Mukono, near Kampala. They then started building houses. The houses were built in groups of six to ten. And there were six different designs of houses. Near the houses, the organization dug wells. They created areas to grow food. And in the center of the houses there was a large building for people to gather together for church or other events.
Voice 1
Members of the community build these groups of houses. When one person wants to build a house, the nearby people come to help. Women and men save money by making paper beads. They then pay a down-payment to buy the house. After that first payment, they must make monthly payments until they have fully purchased the house. But these people can make their payments in beads instead of money. It only takes about two years to fully purchase a house and land in Friendship village.
Voice 2
This is how Achan Grace bought her house in Friendship Village. She spoke with Vicky Collins from Teletrends-TV about owning a house.
Voice 3
"Owning a house is very important, especially if you have a good house. Because your kids can live in a better environment. If it rains, you are sleeping inside your house. Even if you have not eaten, no one knows you have not eaten. A house covers a lot. If I die now, my children have a place to stay there."
Voice 1
Before, Achan Grace did not how she would provide for her children. Today, she feels happy about her future. She knows her life will be good. She has even decided to raise a baby that was left by his parents. Achan Grace knows that she can care for her own children and this new baby. And it is all because of beads!
Voice 2
Torkin Wakefield, one of the creators of Bead for Life walks through the streets of Friendship Village. She speaks about Achan Grace.
Voice 4
"She built this house with beads. Beads became bricks. Bricks became a house, and the house became a door away from poverty. She has come from the danger of dying to self-support. She has a house. She will have the land as soon as her mortgage is paid. Her children are all in school. She is growing food. So when you think about ending poverty, this is what the goal is. Someone standing on their own feet, free of an organization, and able to move her life forward."
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