BeadForLife is an organization to help women in Uganda rise above poverty. These women make beads by hand from used magazine pages. They then sell the beads to organizations in the United States and elsewhere.
Our church, in Lawrenceville, Georgia, was searching for a mission project to help others overseas. The idea was planted that this organization might be the one for us, and this continues as an ongoing mission project for our missions committee.
One of our missions committee members orders the beads from BeadForLife. We have sessions where interested church members come together in the evening and use the beads to make bracelets. It is a fun time for all, as it quickly becomes a time of fellowship for the women of my church.
We display the bracelets we have made at church functions, i.e., fellowship suppers and social times in our fellowship hall. They are great sellers around Christmas time and Mother’s Day. The best part of our bracelet sales comes from the fact that people at our church can shop for a nice gift for someone at church, without having to make a special trip to the mall, and knowing that all the profits go to the women in Uganda to help them rise above the poverty level.
Over the course of the last six to eight months, we have raised close to $1,000.00 for BeadForLife.
The key to making this fundraising a successful campaign is the fact that the women in our church get a chance to fellowship together while creating the bracelets. It is a chance to come together and share daily concerns and uplift each other while promoting a great cause. Also I feel it has been helpful to have the bracelets for sale at church during church functions, as they receive a wider target group of potential buyers in that way.
Although these bracelets are not made of silicone or rubber, they are quite attractive and excellent fundraisers.
