Note from Krista: I may have spent time in Kibera, but the truth is I don't know what it is like to live there. To grow up there. So we welcome Bryan - a lifelong Kibera resident - and his weekly posts to shed some light to what life is like in Kibera - written right from Kibera! This is where so much of our jewelry come from - and as you read his posts weekly, I'm sure you will recognize why we are so passionate about empowering the men and women there through job creation! Thank you Bryan for sharing your insights through word and photos! Its 7:30 pm and Kibera is shining brightly, Thanks to the numerous projects started...
One of the things I get asked about the most in regards to my recent trip to Kenya and Africa is about birth certificates. If you followed along the blog on our trip, you would have read that one of our goals was in obtaining birth certificates for our artists. We took a group of 11 of our artists to get birth certificates which was a full day event! I've been asked a lot of questions - and thought I would address the three main ones... why birth certificates? why is it so hard to get them? are they able to get them now that you're home? Why birth certificates? Last year when I was in Kenya, it continually came up...
A few months ago, my daughter had returned home from sleeping at a friends house singing the praises of name brand shampoo and conditioner and how A-MAZ-ING her hair was feeling after using it. See, we don’t buy name brand shampoo, or conditioner, or well, pretty much any brand name product. And we are usually ok with that – when we chose jobs in the non-profit sector we knew there would be sacrifices (some small, some larger). Except the other day I started feeling sorry for myself, wishing I would dare to splurge for the luxurious hair products – both the shampoo AND conditioner – and then it progressed to maybe even get my hair done professionally? Heck, I even...
Note from Krista: I'm excited to introduce a new weekly segment! You see, I can share with you what I see and experience in Africa, but it is still a visitor's perspective. It is so interesting to see and hear from someone who lives there. An insider's perspective. I have gotten to know Bryan through social media, and when I presented the idea of him blogging for us once a week he was excited to do so. We are also excited to have him share his insights into life in Kibera slums, Kenya with our readers. I may have spent time in Kibera, but the truth is I don't know what it is like to live there. To grow up there....
Sunday March 8th was International Women's Day and to coincide with this BBC premiered a film titled “India's Daughter”. It is a documentary by award-winning filmaker Leslee Udwin that centers on the December 2012 rape of a 23-year-old woman in New Delhi. It explores the attitudes and culture towards women in India and what has changed since the event took place. The victim, who came to be known as Nirbhaya (meaning fearless one) suffered unimaginable horrors while riding a bus home with her male friend after spending an evening at the movies. The extent of her injuries were abhorrent and thirteen days later she succumbed to those injuries. Her death sparked outrage across the world and inspired protests for greater...
