Creative Women of the World is a 501c3 Nonprofit that provides business training and marketing solutions for women rising out of poverty. Creative Women of the World is dedicated to providing a marketing venue for marginalized women from around the world.
Creative Women of the World is THE place to find original designs created by women who live in third world countries and by women in first world countries that support and believe in the power of creativity as a solution for poverty.
Why Creative Women of the World?
While working with HAPI as a full time volunteer for the last four and a half years, I have met several people from other parts of the world. They love what we have done with HAPI and have expressed interest in having a similar marketing venue for their artisan made products. Women from Sierra Leone, Sudan, Mexico, India, Turkey are just a few. Therefore I have been inspired to start a new "social" business named Creative Women of the World. We will have a website (and possibly a store front) that gives us an opportunity to share the stories of women who have found the power of creativity. In many countries, women are not given the right to think independently-- to see or even look for possibility. Consequently, their lives are mired in exhausting poverty with no hope of getting out. When they begin to look at all the possibilities their attitudes and lives shift dramatically.
HAPI employs ABCD, Asset Based Community Development. Rather than looking for all the problems that need solutions in a community, as most non-profits do, HAPI uses the tool of assessing assets. Those assets come in many forms. They may include respect for the environment, tillable land, a collective community culture, and individual skills. To begin to look at available assets rather than just the problems, requires some creative thinking. People have to break out of familiar ruts of negativity and focus on possibilities instead. For women this seems particularly freeing because in many countries, their role has never been in leading community development. Often their hidden skills come out in the form of beautifully made products and the benefits are multiple. They begin to earn a living that allows them to feed and see their children become educated. It elicits respect from their husbands and domestic violence goes down. In a collective society, they find they can support neighbors who are not able to work so there is good will. And in the case of HAPI, they began to see a connection between a God who loves them and wants more for them. They recognized that thinking creatively is a gift from God. They realized that because true faith in God is active not passive, they started a new church called Faith in Action- Methodists in Mizak. Already some member farmers have offered food from their meager harvests to assist others in an emergency situation.
Charity has not worked. Charity is not sustainable. It is risky for anyone to depend on it and it creates a feeling of "Us and Them" that is dis-empowering. On the other hand, when people are urged to look at what they DO have, what they ARE capable of and focus on that, not only do individual lives change, whole communities rise up out of extreme poverty! I have seen it work at HAPI and I believe it can work around the world.
When women come up with a beautiful product to sell Creative Women of the World can be the conduit. We will be an importing and retail marketing social business focusing on selling products handmade by marginalized women who own small businesses located in third world countries and in the US. The principles of asset based community development work EVERYWHERE so I encourage women even in our own country to begin using their creative thinking skills to find solutions. Even though poverty in this country is not as extreme as in a third world country, the psychological effect is equally exhausting.
Creative Women of the World is dedicated to providing a marketing venue for marginalized women from around the world by encouraging creative exploration and effective business practices.
Creative Women of the World is a 501c3 Nonprofit that provides business training and marketing solutions for women around the world rising out of extreme poverty, human trafficking and disaster through the power of creativity. By learning their stories and buying their products, you transform their lives and communities!
- Recycled cement bag Gratitude Journals from Haiti
- Pop tab purses from Honduras
- Recycled magazine bead necklaces and woven baskets from Uganda
- Metalwork jewelry and cruelty-free leather goods from India
