The Leakey Collection Selected as a Finalist in the World Challenge Competition!
The Leakey Collection Selected as Finalists in the World Challenge Competition! I am thrilled to announce to you we have been selected as a finalists in the World Challenge 08, a global competition sponsored by BBC World News and Newsweek, in association with Shell. The competition is aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level. As a result, we will be featured on BBC World News and in Newsweek this fall! The winner of the competition will be selected by a voting process and will receive a $20 000 grant to put back into their project/business and two runners up will each receive $10 000. This investment would create tremendous opportunities for the Maasai by giving us more resources to expand The Leakey Collection. In addition, it would benefit the community by allowing us to do more outreach with programs such as the Women’s Health Initiative. The three finalists will be flown to The Hague, The Netherlands to attend the award ceremony in December 2008. Please visit the site between October 1 and November 21rst to vote! This is a wonderful affirmation of the work we do with the Maasai and I feel honored to have our organization recognized among such outstanding nominees. We were nominated for our innovative use of sustainable materials and the entrepreneurial spirit that drives the thousands of workers that make up The Leakey Collection. Thank you to our loyal customers, retailers and supporters who made this wonderful recognition possible!
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The Bead Museum
The exhibitions are magnificent and reminded me of the important historical and artistic meaning of beads to all cultures- past and present. The museum houses an impressive international collection of over 100,000 beads and beaded pieces. The permanent collection features “The History of Beads” featuring precious artifacts dating back thousands of years. This collection left me with a sense of the historical and cultural significance of beading. I was also amazed with their “Beads from Nature” collection where visitors will learn the oldest beads were made of ostrich eggshell found where else; but the Rift Valley, Kenya nearly 40,000 years ago. If you are ever in the Glendale area, I highly recommend a stop to this unique and wonderful place. I was left with a renewed sense of purpose as we and the Maasai carry on this important tradition. The Leakey Collection Thanks Attachments NJ!
Originally uploaded by amypdunn21 These wonderful customers are also are making donations to raise money to buy shoes for the children of the Maasai. Jan attended an event called “Music on Main” and spoke to about 1000 people about this initiative. She has also distributed donation cans to other businesses throughout the area! We greatly appreciate the generosity of the people in Flemington NJ and what they are doing for the Maasai. If you are ever in the area, plan to stop in and say hello to sisters Karen and Jodi and ask for Karen’s “Zulu to Go” package. http://attachmentsnj.com Women Helping Women
I want to share a story that touched me and continues to inspire me. This came from Jan Syvertsen, one of our sales consultants in California…. Helping Hands Loving Hearts is a gift shop that caters to a wide variety of tourists and regular shore visitors in the beach town of Lavallette, NJ. The store opened in 2003 when Carol Borrelli was asked to do a fund-raiser for a child with Joubert Syndrome; a disease so rare it did not generate enough public interest to create a foundation that could help. Carol was overwhelmed with requests to find a ways to help the families affected by illness and decided the way to help her community was to open this non profit store. Carol and her coworker, Nelson Hyers continue to dedicate themselves to their work and find tremendous joy and satisfaction with what they do each day! Children are now referred to them through Social Services and other children’s hospitals in the region. In addition to meeting basic needs like shoes, food, and other personal items; they help defray some of the medical costs that are overwhelming to most of these families. Sadly, many of the fathers end up leaving their families and create a tremendous burden for the now single mom with a very ill child. Meanwhile, the Maasai women are beading in Kenya - making a living wage and taking care of their own families. Their work gives them an income to provide food year round and pay the education expenses for their children. Then across the world in a little town on the Jersey shore, women benefiting from the sale of these same beads, and again, taking care of their children… “Women helping Women” is truly happening here. These women will never meet each other but I personally get to see the benefit done to both and it makes what I do so meaningful…marketing this creative and unique jewelry from one country to another. I have met some of the most wonderful store owners who truly care about carrying products that make a difference in this world! Carol and Nelson have taken it one step further and donated all their profits to meet the needs of the children. All those who shop in the store see pictures of the kids…they may hear about a specific child and how they are doing and will then participate in this great endeavor through their own purchase. They hear about the women thousands of miles away in Kenya who are sitting under the Acacia trees beading and also enjoying the opportunity to be part of The Leakey Collection! This wonderful store is yet another bridge that connects one culture to another. For more information on Helping Hands Loving Hearts, visit their site http://www.helpinghandslovinghearts.com/. Women’s Health InitiativeLast year The Leakey Collection began an annual Breast Cancer drive during the month of October and last year’s earnings funded the start up of our “Women’s Health Initiative” for the Maasai women in Kenya. We invited 12 women, 6 elder and 6 young, to kick off our classes. The elder women came to teach us their current practices and the younger to learn from us and help blend the two areas of expertise, traditional medical practices and with contemporary medical practices. The women selected the representatives among a group of several hundred who will then teach others across an expanse of approximately one hundred miles. Our expert health instructor was Channa Commanday who generously volunteered to teach the first of many classes in the bush, hours away from the bustling hospital in The class was a resounding success. The women, Channa and other medical experts are lined up to work with the Maasai women in our ongoing Women’s Health Initiative, which will continue to be reported on our blog. One of the best moments of the first class was when Channa was struggling with a translation from English into Ki-Maa, the Maasai dialect. Speaking only Ki-Maa, the 16 students waited patiently while Channa searched for the Ki-Swahili words to tell the interpreter, the bright young and well educated Mr. Tingisha. “Dudu, kidogo sana, SANA”, Channa repeated, gesturing with her thumb and forefinger pinched tightly together, meaning; insect, very, very small insect. Out of desperation she switches to English, “so small that you need a microscope to see it. Do you know what a micro-scope is”? She says to Tingisha. “Yes,” the gracious young man politely nods. “Oh, good”, sighed in relief that she can forge ahead in English. “Okay, I want to explain germ theory, and I am looking for the words to tell the women about very, very small germs, so small that you can’t see them with the naked eye. Can you explain that to them?” she asks. Expectantly the women wait, Tingisha studies the students, studies Channa, and coolly asks, “Do you mean micro-organisms?” I nearly fell out of my chair with laughter. “Channa, first lesson of the day, don’t under estimate your audience.” I said, gathering myself back onto the wooden bench. Thank you to all our stores and all the women around the world who have purchased our Breast Cancer Multi-strand necklace and bracelet set, Kupona – “to heal.” Look for our announcement this September of the
Profiles Every few weeks we profile a woman to give you a better understanding of and personal connection to the amazing women here in Kenya. Kanampa ene Rincho is 42 years old, widowed and has 5 children, 2 boys and 3 girls. She says she has received no formal education but is a good bead worker and good at constructing traditional houses. Kanampa describes and average day when she does not go to work. “I wake up at 6:00 in the morning, prepare breakfast, and prepare the children for school. Milk the animals and then open the gates so that the animals can move to their grazing areas. I come back home and prepare lunch. Go to the river and clean the clothes, go back home to feed the children after school. I take a little rest and goes to collect firewood. In the evening I prepare tea, milk the animals, prepare supper and feed the children”. Kanampa goes to sleep at 10:00 pm. Kanampa says that her favorite ceremony is Christmas because, “everybody has a party at his home and I enjoy moving to different homes”. Her best friends she says are her children because they are with her all the time and that what she wishes she could change about the Maasai culture is to stop keeping so many animals, she thinks, “people should do mixed farming.” Kanampa’s hope for her children is to get a good education and good employment. The lesson she learned from her mother is to take care of the family and from her father she learned, “to take care of animals because they are ready food.” The Leakey Collection The Leakey Collection is a sales and marketing company that promotes the Opportunity of Work for the Maasai Women in Kenya. TLC sells Fashion Accessories, Home Interior Accessories and Gifts that are hand made by the women of Kenya. The company has worked in conjunction with the women to structure the company to fit their lifestyle both culturally and economically. In addition to our Work Opportunity our company invests 5% of the Gross back into the communities in which we work through the following ways: · Aiding education by helping to build schools, start libraries, donating financial aid to students and paying teacher’s salaries. · Bringing medical classes to the rural women which teach; illness prevention, diagnostic skills, maternity and midwife training, hygiene and the administering of non-hospital treatments. · Aiding rural business opportunities by building access roads, bringing communication to rural areas through providing mobile phones for small businesses, providing small business counseling and advancing small business loans. Company News The Leakey Collection is fortunate to be working with Wharton MBA students on a project to help expand the work we are doing in Kenya. They had a very exciting visit this January as they arrived during the unrest that took place after the Kenyan presidential election. The teams of students handled the unexpected circumstances with aplomb. In May they presented their recommendations to TLC which were directed to helping the company to grow. A very educational exercise and look forward to implementing the changes so we can better serve our customers and the Maasai women in Kenya.
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