Artisans

Anadoule artisan group is located in the Turkish central city of Anatolia. It provides opportunities for artisans to learn skills in handmade crafts in order to provide income for their families and to keep the Turkish culture alive.

Each artisan has a unique story. Faitma is an artisan who needed an income to provide for her family. Her husband no longer worked, and she had several children. The work of handcrafting these products provides the earnings Faitma desperately needs for her family. Anadoule makes a lasting impact on the lives of these Turkish artisans and their families.

Impoverished Indonesian mothers struggle to provide basic necessities for their families. In their culture, mothers are expected to stay at home and not work. So, if the husband doesn’t make much money, the families struggle with poverty. They struggle to feed their families, and an education for their children may be out of the question.

Ayu Sewing Project began to help Indonesian women learn a trade to support their families. The artisan group allows mothers to stay at home while they make extra income. By making only a few products each week, these women increase their monthly income by as much as 40 percent! This income provides for their children’s education and medical expenses, covers their rent, and allows for some conveniences such as functional bathrooms.

Back to Africa began in 2008 as an offshoot of Heart of the Bride Ministries, Inc. The primary objective of Back to Africa is family preservation and care for families at risk in Kenya. The artisans, most of whom are single mothers or refugees or both, lived in extreme poverty before they began creating Back to Africa jewelry.

Mama Faith, pictured here, has been working with Back to Africa since 2008 as a bead artisan. A mother of 4, her income from Back to Africa enables her to consistently feed and clothe her children, send them to school, give to her local church, and help her family and neighbors who are not as fortunate. She says, “I have seen God in these necklaces. My husband got saved and baptized! I am a very happy woman. He used to drink and now he goes to church, and helps with the beads.”

The Back to Africa project has benefited more than 400 people. They have seen firsthand how a small paper bead or simple ceramic pendant can profoundly impact a community halfway around the world.

Baptist Friendship House in New Orleans, Louisiana, works to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the homeless, human trafficking survivors, and those living in poverty.

They are a registered Christian Women’s Job Corps site of national WMU.

The artisans learned to create pottery as a part of the therapy provided at Baptist Friendship House. Now these women have turned their hobby into a skill they can use to rebuild their lives.

Begin Anew in south Nashville, a Christian Women’s Job Corps site, partnered with WorldCrafts to help refugees rebuild their lives. Begin Anew Refugee Artisan Group provides English as a second language classes, mentorships, Bible study, and handicrafts work for Burmese refugee women.

Blessed Hope provides creative work, skills development training, and true lasting hope to the women artisans and their families throughout the Himalayan Mountains of Nepal.

Labor and sex trafficking are both prevalent within Nepal, and the jobs and training Blessed Hope provides help eliminate the desperate situations which often lead to susceptibility to trafficking.

Through their partnership with WorldCrafts, the women artisans are paid salaries that make them able to purchase basic necessities for their families such as their children’s school fees, diapers, electricity, and propane gas to cook with and heat their homes.

Artisans employed at Channapatna Handicrafts hand make wooden products using a more than 200-year-old craft tradition unique to Channapatna in southern India. The hale wood used is unique to the area. Each product is dyed with natural, nontoxic vegetable dyes. This craft was handed down by generations and was in danger of dying out because people had to move to larger cities to care for their families.

Through its partnership with WorldCrafts, Channapatna Handicrafts is reviving the craft while they improve the lives of the artisans and their families by creating employment opportunities in their community.

In some rural areas of China, impoverished women are forced to work in faraway sweatshop factories to earn money needed for their children’s school fees. China Ethnic Crafts is a caring, compassionate employer that provides women an opportunity to earn an income with dignity. In addition to providing an education for each artisan’s children, China Ethnic Crafts also offers spiritual training and medical care, including regular dental and eye checkups.

The artisan group ensures that each woman can earn an income by providing them with jobs that match their skills. The different jobs include embroidery work, finishing, hand-sewing, cleaning, ironing, and quality control. The compassion and community of China Ethnic Crafts brings daily hope and stability and security.

Christian Women's Job Corps of Madison County, Alabama, provides intensive courses that include Bible study and computer classes, completely free of charge. Each student is assigned a mentor, and each mentor is committed to a one-on-one relationship to help build the student's self-esteem, self-confidence and skills essential to success in life and work.

Through its partnership with WorldCrafts, women are able to earn an income making leather earrings with leather donated from Holtz Leather Company, a local, family-owned business that is committed to making an impact on the lives of people in their community.

Kristina came from a background of abuse and drugs. After crying out to God to save her in her early 20s, she started a new chapter in her life by joining the Christian Women’s Job Corps (CWJC) of Rusk County, Texas. Tutors helped Kristina complete her GED, allowing her to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse. CWJC of Rusk County exists to give women like Kristina a chance to get back on their feet. Participants can receive instruction in basic job skills, GED and literacy tutoring, and English as a second language courses. They also have the opportunity to earn supplemental income by working in the small jewelry and crafts business at the site.