op:coop

Fabric of Life Foundation

http://www.upontheroofwithcarol.org

How do you come together and share a resource?

The mission of the Fabric of Life Foundation is to create economic independence for women and families in developing countries through cooperative development projects. Our vision is to improve the quality of life for women and families through cooperative, sustainable, appropriate development projects that respect and honor local traditions and cultures. In Mali, many rural families send female children to the cities to beg. Poverty levels and a lack of programs for beggars make escaping from a life of begging unlikely. No program exists in Mali to serve those who are economically inactive. We use a cooperative credit union model to break the generational cycle of begging. The Hèrè jè Training Center offers a place for young women to learn life skills. Over an 18-month training period, each participant receives a $20/week stipend for transport, food, and water for herself and her family. The curriculum includes health, nutrition, family planning, AIDS prevention, literacy, and income generating skills. After 18 months, graduates form a producer cooperative of five graduates. They create products using local cotton resources and traditional beading. These items are sold in the local African market and are exported to Edmonds, WA where the Fabric of Life Foundation opened a fair trade retail store to showcase the products. Our experience proves that the begging cycle can be broken. Since the program started, 20 students have graduated and use their skills in full or part-time jobs. Four have become trainers at the Center. When young women see successful graduates employed, able to rent a room, feed themselves and set aside savings, it provides hope for a future for themselves and their children that does not include begging.

How would your group use the award money?

The grant will help us fund the education of 10 young women at the Hèrè jè Training Center for 18 months. The funding would be used for the $20/week stipend that each young woman receives during her training. Each participant manages the weekly stipend as follows:

* $6 for bus transport ($1/day for six days)

* Approximately $9 for food, water, shelter, clothing ($1.50/day for six days)

* Approximately $3 for their families

* $1-2 savings

This stipend allows each young woman to arrive at the Training Center each day, feel a sense of structure, safety, community, and support. It allows each young woman to explore her strengths, be creative, and develop a marketable skill. This stipend provides her with access to an education about how to care for her own health and her own body. It provides her with a sense of pride and responsibility. The grant would allow 10 more young women to live without begging, to obtain a sense of ownership of their lives, to save enough money to help their families and care for themselves. The grant would be a direct contribution to the health, livelihood, positive self-image, and confidence of 10 young women who are begging on the streets of Mali right now. The grant would help us to cover the stipends of our next incoming class so that we can direct greater attention and existing funds to areas of need including: increasing health and self-esteem materials, replacing the old Singer treadle sewing machines with electric machines to enhance the students’ skills and increase product capacity, paying living wages to Center supervisors, repairing and improving the Center cement building to allow disabled students easier access to some structures they presently have difficulty maneuvering, creating a corrugated roof on four poles to cover the dyeing vats to keep the young women out of the hot sun, and managing the cost of shipping to gain wider distribution of the women’s products.