EcoAfrica Social Ventures

In January I spent a fascinating time working on an exciting project with a team of the incredibly talented wire artists of Zimbabwe, in the township of Chitungwiza. (This is the high density township near our crafting workshops, (and one of the worst hit areas of the current cholera epidemic).

In December 2008 Donna Katzin – executive director of Shared Interest, a non profit focusing on micro investment in Africa, commissioned Eco Africa Social Ventures to produce three hundred and fifty wire and bead African animals. They were to be crafted to form centerpieces on the tables for their annual fundraising gala event on March 30th 2009 at New York’s famous Tavern On The Green.

This was our first such project involving craftspeople other than our own paper makers and paper crafters. But it was in keeping with our new plans to expand our reach to help other crafting communities and finding markets for the fruits of their talents too.

I was honored and a little anxious as I set off in December on my first trip to Zimbabwe in nine months. Part of that nine months was the period between the two elections when much violence and upheaval had occurred.

It was a relief to find that the talented wire artists were still around despite the upheaval and in mid January we put together a small team of eight artists all anxious to make a start on what they do best - to twist, bend and fashion lengths of plain fencing wire into complex anatomically correct animal shapes and thread them with a surface of intricately woven tiny jewel-like glass beads. Tools - their own strong hands and a pair of needle-nosed pliers.

They soon formed themselves into a group, deep inside the township of Chitungwiza and settled themselves under a shady tree with a snack bar on hand to keep them refreshed. They were given two weeks to complete the task and to my astonishment they met their deadline! (in my mind I had allowed a second two weeks). We managed to find a courier service to fast ship the four boxes to the USA and on March 30th the stunning collection of jewel-like beaded animals were gracing the tables of the glittering Shared Interest gala event.

Below are some reflections of the exciting and rewarding-for-all project that took place.

THE WIRE AND BEAD TEAM FIND A TREE TO SIT UNDER - WHERE THEY WILL CRAFT OVER 350 WIRE AND BEAD ANIMALS IN JUST UNDER TWO WEEKS. A SNACK BAR SETS UP NEARBY TO KEEP THEM REFRESHED.



FIRST COUNT



TAVERN ON THE GREEN – MARCH 30th 2009 – event photographs by Anna Morris / AnnaShoots.com



CBS News correspondent, Michelle Miller, who emceed the evening, fell in love with our beaded animals as did all the guests, some of who wanted to place immediate orders.


To order these beautiful wire beaded animals call us at 917 493 9515.
Delivery at this time is approximately 2 months. For the future, due to popular demand, Helping Hands For Africa, the social enterprise that does the sales and marketing for the artisans products, will be bringing them over with their next container and delivery time will be within days of the order.

Our many thanks to Shared Interest for enabling us to expand our reach to help other crafting communities.