On November 14, between noon and 7:00pm, we will welcome L.A. based shoe designer Salpy to Galapagos Boutique (on Route 1, Charlestown, RI)!

This exclusive event will give you the opportunity to meet Salpy, personally view her entire collection of amazing shoes, and even have her create a custom shoe… just for you.

Most importantly… you’ll also be helping young girls living in Rhode Island by supporting the Rhode Island Crisis Assistance Center. Galapagos Boutique will be donating 10% of the events sales to this wonderful charity.

The Galapagos Event, “In Her Shoes”

Salpy and Kevork… making shoes in America.

 

A slight play on words, “In Her Shoes” is an exclusive Galapagos Boutique event supporting a very special program for young, ambitious, energetic girls,  from diverse backgrounds.

The organizations mission and goals made it a perfect match for the event.

Sandra is from Ecuador. Salpy and Kevork are from Armenia.

Understanding what it takes to create a successful business, Sandra and Salpy are the perfect duo to organize an event like this and help support the next generation of young business women.

And the shoes….

What will take place at “In Her Shoes” ?

• Salpy will be bringing her entire current collection of beautiful shoes to Galapagos Boutique for you. If you thought Galapagos had a lot of shoes, just wait until you see what Salpy’s bringing!
• You’ll have the opportunity to create you own custom made shoe. Want a different color? Like exotic skin like eel? More comfortable in a lower heel? Work one-on-one with Salpy to come up with something truely unique.
• Have the chance to win a free pair of Salpy shoes that will be raffled during the event.
• Enjoy a delicious selection of complimentary wine and light snacks.
• Feel good. Knowing that 10% of the entire events sales will be donated to the Rhode Island Crisis Assistance Center will make shopping for your favorite Salpy shoes all that much more fun.

For more information about the event, please click here.

Photo from www.amberchand.com website

It’s amazing what is happening at the Women’s Center in Darfur, set up by the Darfur Peace and Development folks.  Check out this link to read more about it, and to see a short film about the women creating the baskets for the Amber Chand Collection.  It’s so easy to support our sisters living a world away…please consider buying one of the exquiste baskets created by the women in Darfur.

In March 2008, in partnership with Darfur Peace & Development Organization (DPDO), the Amber Chand Collection (www.amberchand.com) helped launch a basket weaving enterprise at the DPDO Women’s Center in Kassab Camp, North Darfur.  The Women’s Center was established to support the recovery of women who had fled their destroyed villages over the previous four years.  Many of them had been raped.  All are severely traumatized by the loss of family members, homes, and livelihoods. They survive without basic services in a makeshift encampment with over 25,000 inhabitants.  We offered these women the resources to earn a dignified livelihood within the relative safety of the camp by weaving mundolas, the traditional Darfuri basket.  Currently 66 women at the Center handcraft baskets that invariably astonish customers with their vibrant colors and designs.

The women are paid on delivery for each completed basket — the price set by the women themselves.  At the Center, the baskets are quality-checked and individually tagged with the weaver’s name.  At least 300 are boxed for each shipment.  From Kassab Camp, the shipment is taken by truck or helicopter to the nearest airport in El Fasher, then flown to Khartoum for commercial shipment to the United States.  The Darfur Basket initiative has grown steadily, becoming a lifeline for these women.  Three women leaders in the community now manage the enterprise. New weavers are recruited regularly.   In 2008, the women produced 615 baskets.  For 2009, they are on track to deliver at least 1000.  Plans are progressing to open similar Women’s Centers, with weavers’ cooperatives, in two more IDP camps.

The Foundation is a non-profit grant making initiative of the Trusteeship Institute, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit that supports Gandhi’s principles of stewardship for socially responsible businesses. The Foundation seeks to strengthen the connection between American women and women in vulnerable regions around the world – most notably in Afghanistan, Israel and Palestine, Darfur/Sudan and Rwanda — by ensuring that, through a model of generosity and shared prosperity, donors are able to impact directly the lives of these talented women, enabling them to feed their families, to educate their children, and to regain the dignity that comes with a sustainable livelihood.

We invite you, in honor of World Refugee Day, to support our work in Darfur by purchasing a beautiful handcrafted basket by the talented women in Darfur – and to learn more about the collaborative.

The following quote is from a visit to the Women’s Center in Kassab Camp by Susan Burgess Lent with Darfur Peace & Development Organization, our non- profit partner in Northern Darfur: “64 weavers have come today.  Fatiah calls each in turn.  Some present their baskets with obvious pride.  Fatiah writes each weaver’s name on a hangtag in Arabic; the other Fatiah on the team helps fasten lid to basket, adding the hangtag; Aisha, organizes the baskets in neat piles for packing when the driver brings the boxes I’d requested.  My translator Huda, counts out the cash payments – each is focused on her task. Payday makes everyone happy.  I find the women stunning, like exotic birds, draped in tobes of dazzling hues and designs.  After a short time I understand that they are hurt, needy, confused — as I surely would be in that environment.  They also are quick to find humor and enjoyment in a day, especially one that bring good news.  Though I sense a great inner reserve of resilience, I wonder how long can they survive against really bad odds.  How long should they have to hang on, waiting for adequate security in the villages they have fled?  I envision enormous accomplishments when they no longer are stranded in this camp.”

Make a difference in a woman’s life.

The women of Darfur are waiting.

The women at the Women’s Center at a refugee camp in Darfur are creating beautiful baskets to bring to the world market to support themselves and their families.  The Darfur Basket Initiative  is being launched as part of the Amber Chand Collection and Girls in the World would like to be a sponsor.  The money raised from each basket sold that is given to the women (they set the price for their baskets) helps these women to educate their children, pay for food and water, shelter, and health care in the camp.  Check out www.amberchand.com

How can you help?  We’d like to sponsor the women at a $1000 level, so if you’re interested in making a donation as part of our project, you can send us a check made out to The Amber Chand Foundation, with notation that it is for the Darfur Basket Initiative.  Please email nrafi@hotmail.com for more information.

Every woman can make a difference in another woman’s life.  Please join us in supporting our sisters in Darfur – and help them regain the dignity that comes with a sustainable livelihood.  The women of Darfur are waiting…..

What an honor it was to host Ms. Amber Chand, international peace ambassador, here in Rhode Island for our first Girls in the World meeting.  The meeting itself, well, didn’t quite happen as we had a glitch with permission slips, so the next meeting will be in July.

But let me tell you about my visit with Amber.  I hosted Amber at my home in North Kingstown for a Prosperity Gathering where 10 women (and one guy) spent the evening listening to Amber’s story of her childhood in Uganda, her flight to England after Idi Amin’s dictatorship, her new life in the United States and story of how she began her amazing company, the Amber Chand Collection www.amberchand.com. ( The photo above is of Amber Chand and Delia Rodrigues during an interview on Poder Radio in Providence this morning).

Amber shared with my guests the unbelievably beautiful craftswork of skilled artisans around the globe, with each gift in the collection being created by women currently living in war or conflict zones (Afghanistan, Rwanda, Palestine & Israel, Gaza, Iraq, Burma, Vietnam and Darfur to name a few).  Each of the items are created by the hands of a woman living in a refugee camp or working in a woman’s collaborative, and her collection offers these women an opportunity to bring their items to a world market through Amber’s company.

Imagine it….a handwoven basket made by a woman sitting under the shade of a gauze tent in a refugee camp in Darfur.  An exquisitely made candle infused with wildflowers created by women in both Jerusalem and Nazareth, Israeli and Palestinian in business together.  A beautifully embroidered handbag made by a woman in the hills of Afghanistan.  A unique doll created by the hands of a collaborative of Tibetan women living in a refugee camp in Pakistan.  Imagine it….

You don’t have to wonder where these beautiful items come from.  With Amber’s collection, you learn the stories of the women who are creating these handicrafts around the globe – you know that these gifts are going from their hands to your hands – you have a direct connection and opportunity to support a woman surviving in a conflict zone, and you’re supporting her business to help her provide for her family and begin her life again.

We all ask ourselves what can I do to make the world a better place.  What can I do that will make a difference?  Here is the answer.  I can support a woman a world away, a woman who has lost her home, her family, her livelihood, her hope….. I can support her by purchasing her exquisite artwork and let her know that she is not forgotten.  She is a skilled craftswoman, offering her items to the world, and asking you to help her begin her life again.  I can help her.

And now each time I look at the beautifully woven Darfur Peace Basket lovingly placed on my bookcase, I can imagine the face of the woman sitting under that gauze tent in the African sun, weaving her baskets and supporting her family with dignity and respect in that refugee camp half a world away.  She is my sister, and I am making a difference in her life, and in mine.

So, Friday is the big day for our first class with Amber Chand (www.amberchand.com).  We’re so excited!

We’ve put together the schedule for our first year of classes (click on the schedule link on the right) and are in the process of lining up both speakers and sponsors.  Know of any local businesses in RI that might like to sponsor our program?  Please contact us at 401.714.2388.

Sponsors for our Amber Chand session are Compendium (www.live-inspired.com) and Sodexho.  YEAH!  Thanks so much Compendium for donating the beautiful  ”her life” journals for our students to write their stories in during the year, and to Sodexho for donating the yummy snacks and drinks for the day!

OK it’s official -

The first class begins at 2:00PM at Gloria Dei church in Providence.  We’ll post this weekend to let everyone know how it went and when the next class will be.  Sign ups will be available for students until all 20 slots are filled or July 15th, whichever comes first.  Just contact us if you’d like an application.