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Jambo News
Beads for Social Change
September 2009
Kazuri Newsletter Volume 2 | |
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 Welcome Bead Lovers Welcome to the September issue of Jambo News, a quarterly Kazuri Dealer e-publication for Kazuri bead afficionados.
There is something special for you in this newsletter. Be sure to keep reading for an exciting FREE offer!
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 Kazuri & Me
written by our valued customer, Major Trish Froderberg
To wear Kazuri is to feel the heartbeat of Kenya.....
At times that heartbeat is frail and weak due to the ever-present scourge of HIV/AIDS which seems to touch every facet of life in this beautiful country. I am a Salvation Army officer based in San Francisco. When my daugher and I visited Nairobi, we felt the pain of life in the Kibera slum. We saw the hopelessness written in the eyes of its children. The Salvation Army is based there, providing education for the children, micro-business opportunities for abandoned women trapped in a life of prostitution, and the kind of caring that strengthens the heart.
The same heartbeat of caring is evident when you visit the Kazuri factory in beautiful Karen. The women who are employed by Kazuri find joy and satisfaction in being a part of creating something beautiful. You are instantly embraced by their warmth. When you wear these small and beautiful treasures, your heart is connected to the Kenyan earth and the women whose hands have created this gift of love.
Our deepest gratitude to Kazuri. The proceeds from the sale of these beads helps support our purchase of water cisterns to provide clean water for Salvation Army schools in Kenya.
For further information on the work of the Salvation Army in Kenya, please contact:: Major Trish Froderberg . Thank you, Trish, for this touching story.
If you want to share how Kazuri has touched your life, please send your article to the email address listed below in the Contacts section. If your article is published, you will receive a 10-pack of Kazuri beads as a special thanks! |
 Feature Article
Do Good AND Look Good
Summer has come to an end, and once again we are excited to be participating with Brighton Accessories. They have launched their new designer jewelry featuring Kazuri beads as part of their summer line up. For those of you who may not be familiar with this partnership, last summer Brighton Accessories (a top manufacturer of accessories in the U.S.) designed a necklace, bracelet and earring set featuring Kazuri beads for use in its water purification awareness and fundraising campaign. Proceeds from the purchase of these special designs were used to help build pure water wells in Kenya, where currently only one in six people have access to purified water.
The Brighton-Kazuri jewelry campaign, originallly scheduled for 30 days, sold most of the jewelry in less than one week, and raised more than $750,000 to build clean water wells in Kenya. In honor of the Kazuri women, the first pure water well was built in Kibura, one of the largest poverty-stricken slum areas in Kenya, and home to the majority of women employed by Kazuri, LLC.
Brighton loved the beads so much that they once again included them in this summer's line up. These limited edition stunning new designs capture the beauty of Kazuri as only Brighton can. The limited edition line is available starting July 5, and if history teaches us anything, they will not last! So be sure to check out the new line at Brighton Accessories. or look for the Brighton retailer nearest you.
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Are Kazuri beads environmentally friendly?
The beads are made from clay from Mt. Kenya. They are formed by hand, sun dried, and painted with glaze. With the exception of a few, the glazes are lead free. A few colors have trace amounts of lead, but they are below the standards set by International Organization for Standardization.
Why are some businesses selling Kazuri not listed as authorized dealers?
We cannot be sure where these beads are coming from. There is only one distribution system authorized by the Kazuri factory. If you are not buying from an authorized dealer, you cannot be sure you are getting authentic Kazuri beads. If you want to insure that your purchase is supporting the women of Kazuri, please make sure that you purchase from an authorized dealer, or ask your retailer if they have purchased from an authorized dealer. (See dealer list at www.kazuribeadsusa.com)
We enjoy receiving questions from you. If you have any questions, send them to the email address listed below in the Contacts section. We will feature as many as we can in this area of our e-newsletter. |
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Something For You!
As part of our ongoing commitment to educate and support our customers, we would like to help you tell the story about Kazuri beads by offering you 5 complimentary copies of Kazuri's marketing brochure with your next purchase of Kazuri beads.
This glossy fold-out tells the Kazuri story in words and photos, and will provide you with additional information to help in your marketing efforts.
To shop, click here: www.kazuribeadswest.com Please mention offer #BR267 in the comments section of your order. Offer expires September 30, 2009.
As always, from us and the women who create the small treasures--thank you very much!
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How You Can Stay Involved
We are looking to our customers to help us sustain the future of these amazing little beads that make a big difference in the lives of so many women.
We want to hear your stories about how Kazuri has made a difference in your life or touched others.
We will choose stories for inclusion in subsequent issues. Please send your story to the email address listed below in the Contacts section, with permission for reprinting. If we choose your story, you will receive a 10-pack of Kazuri beads as a special thanks! |
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Thank You
Thank you to all our online subscribers for taking the time to "join" us for our quarterly e-newsletter. We thank you for all your dedication and commitment to Fair Trade beads. We hope we have inspired you or provided a little bright spot in your day. Be sure to look for our next issue in December. | |
| CONTACT INFORMATION |
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How To Reach Us:
Authorized Dealer serving: AL, HI, IA, ID, IN, KS, KY, LA, MN, MO, MS, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, OK, SD, TN, TX, UT, WI, WV, WY | |
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Jambo News
Beads for Social Change
June 2009
Kazuri Newsletter Volume 1 | |
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Welcome Bead Lovers
Welcome to the premier issue of Jambo News, a quarterly Kazuri Dealer collaborative e-publication for Kazuri bead afficionados across the USA. In each publication we hope to inspire, inform and excite your creative sense by bringing you information and stories about the world of Kazuri beads. There is something special for you in this newsletter. Be sure to keep reading for an exciting promotional offer!
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 Kazuri & Me
In this segment we want to share heartwarming, inspirational, or just plain fun stories about Kazuri. We found a really inspiring article in the WIP publication that truly sums up what Kazuri is about.
The WIP (Women's International Press www.thewip.net ) is an extraordinary online women's publication, which creates opportunity for women to publish uncensored articles and empowers women across the globe.
Writer Sarah Wyatt graciously granted us permission to reprint the article here for you.
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 Eshe's Story
Kenya's Kazuri Bead Factory Allows Women from Kibera Slum to Build New Lives
Years of hardship and backbreaking labor in the riot-stricken slums of Kibera in south Kenya have worn 18 year old Eshe Koome to the bone. A single mother of two, she walked out on her abusive husband and survived for two years as a daily wage laborer, loading vegetables and other goods for sale.
Yet Eshe's eyes sparkle today with a new zest for life as she strings pearlescent blue beads on a loom. Proudly turned out in a traditional skirt, the teenager says: "All that's in the past now. I am building a life."
Eshe's story captures in a nutshell how a group of formerly indigent, urban women operates a business for themselves. The Kazuri Bead Factory, located in the Nairobi suburb of Karen, is unique in that it is Kenya's first visitors' attraction of its kind, created for and by women. Founded by Lady Susan Wood in 1975, the company is known for its beautiful, hand-painted beads made from the authentic clay from the Mt. Kenya area. Kazuri (Swahili for "small and beautiful"), also produces a number of other goods popular with tourists including pottery, hand-beaded sandals and purses. The beads are often featured on three-dimensional art cards and can also be found in shadowboxes.
Born in a mud hut in Congo's Ituri Forest in 1918, Wood's parents were missionaries from England. Lady Wood was educated in England and married surgeon Michael Wood. The couple came to Kenya in 1947 and started a coffee plantation on the Karen Blixen estate (portrayed in the movie Out of Africa), about 30 minutes from Nairobi's bustling city center. Eventually Susan and Michael founded East African Flying Doctor Service, which expanded into the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) where Michael served as Director General for 29 years.
Wood started the bead business on the Karen Blixen estate with just two single mothers, but soon, more women joined the workshop. All of them were poor, abandoned by their husbands or widowed by the AIDS epidemic that is engulfing Africa. Presently, about 120 women [over 300 women as of 2009], mostly single mothers, work at the facility. The absence of a formal education has not deterred these women from successfully managing their growing tourist attraction and lucrative gift shop.
Kazuri's proud management team ensures that all employees receive thorough training and maintain high standards throughout the production process. After baking in the industrial-size ovens, where they are heated to 1,060 Celsius and hardened, the clay beads are sent to another table to be painted. Despite the labor-intensive process, the work environment is cheerful. The sounds of laughter envelop the women as they hand-shape the beads, glaze and paint them, ready them to be fired in the kilns, and thread them onto wire to make jewelry.
From Poverty to Global Sales
Kibera, considered the largest slum on the African continent, encompasses approximately 2.5 square kilometers (617 acres) and has an impoverished population estimated at one million. Recurrently stricken by riots, ethnic rivalries and arson, government-sponsored attempts to upgrade the area are difficult due to violent crime and theft. Approximately 20 percent of the 2.2 million Kenyans living with HIV live in Kibera. Open sewage routes and poor nutrition account for many illnesses and deaths among its residents.
Career opportunities for Kenyan women are limited, especially for those that live in the slum. Kenya's tourism and manufacturing businesses are generally operated and dominated by men. Tour bus and safari driving, occupations that can provide comfortable living wages from their healthy customer gratuities, are overwhelmingly reserved for males.
Employment at Kazuri has changed the quality of life for some women of Kibera through individual economic empowerment. Now, overseas markets want Kazuri's products, and the company's income from exports has exceeded its local sales. Kazuri's beautifully finished products are now sold worldwide and the company is a member of the Fair Trade Federation. The factory, which offers tours, has become a "must see" for visitors to Kenya.
Passport to an Education
Today, Eshe earns a living wage. Though illiterate, Eshe is aware that education serves as her children's passport to a better future. While Kenya's government provides free education to children only up to Grade Eight, she plans to send her children to a private high school with her earnings at Kazuri.
The bead factory's employees continue to be women from the marginalized classes. Although originally created for single mothers, the company has now extended their workplace to women who have left prostitution or served prison terms.
Eshe's rising fortune is a story that has been repeated dozens of times in the lives of other women who live in Kenya, a country currently faced with a 45 percent unemployment rate. With unemployment so high, one employee may provide for an "extended family" of 20 or more. Kazuri has enabled women to emerge as powerful catalysts of change.
"My children will be educated," Eshe notes with pride.
About the Author
Sarah Wyatt is a freelance travel and outdoors writer. A native of Iowa and a Native American, she holds a degree in Journalism and English. Wyatt has been a freelance writer for 11 years, with work appearing in Texas Monthly, Mother Jones and Theater Magazine.
(Reprinted with permission from the author.)
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Special Offer!
In celebration of this official launch of our "Jambo News," all authorized dealers will be participating in a "special gift with purchase!!!"
For five days only, from June 20 through June 24, when you make an online purchase of $75.00 or more, we will select a pre-packaged 10-pack of Kazuri beads as our gift to you. It's a kind of "thank you for your purchases and support" of the Kazuri women.
This special is for online orders only. Retail purchases only. No other discounts apply. Each authorized dealer's selection will vary.
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FAQ & More
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We enjoy receiving questions from you. If you have any comments or questions, send them to the email address listed below in the Contacts section.
We will feature as many as we can in this section of our e-newsletter.
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How You Can Stay Involved
We are looking to our customers to help us sustain the future of these amazing little beads that make a big difference in the lives of so many women.
We want to hear your stories about how Kazuri has made a difference in your life or touched others.
We will choose stories for inclusion in subsequent issues. Please send your story to the email address listed below in the Contacts section, with permission for reprinting. If we choose your story, you will receive a 10-pack of Kazuri beads as a special thanks! |
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Thank You
Thank you to all our online subscribers for taking the time to "join" us for our premiere e-newsletter. We thank you for all your dedication and commitment to Fair Trade beads. We hope we have inspired you or provided a little bright spot in your day. Be sure to look for our next issue in September. | |
| CONTACT INFORMATION |
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How To Reach Us:
Authorized Dealer serving: California | |
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FREE SHIPPING VIA FIRST CLASS/PARCEL POST MAIL!
PRIORITY MAIL IS AVAILABLE FOR AN EXTRA $10.00! |
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Kazuri Beads are offered through
Kazuri Beads West, a division of Global Marketplace, the exclusive authorized Kazuri Bead dealer
for CALIFORNIA.
We can accept web orders from anywhere in the US, but will only appear at shows in our dealer territory.
Website: www.kazurbeadswest.com |
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Wholesale Discounts
- Use the following codes on the order form:
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30% off a purchase
of $250 or more - use the code off30 |
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50% off a purchase
of $1,000 or more - use the code off50 |
We have a $10.00
minimum order
THESE DISCOUNTS DO NOT APPLY TO ITEMS ON SALE - INITIAL KAZURI & METALCRAFT ORDERS MUST EACH MEET MINIMUM ORDER AMOUNTS FOR DISCOUNTS TO APPLY |
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WE USUALLY SHIP THE DAY AFTER WE RECEIVE
YOUR ORDER |
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Email
Questions to
kazuri@globalmarketplace.com |
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We accept these
forms of payment at this site. |
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