Crafts By Youth

Crafts By Youth is an international grassroots effort uniting youth together as one to break the cycle of poverty through direct purchases that empower youth via social entrepreneurship & sustainable development.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByjbjGzE9Q4 (Audio/Picture/Music)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpdDC6GiYcQ (Picture/music slideshow)
A non-profit business driven entirely by youth to empower youth, Crafts By Youth provides socially-conscious youth in America with an opportunity to engage their passion for social justice and equity by making environmentally-friendly purchases from youth in Uganda. Together, we unite as youth across the world to break the chains of extreme poverty through social entrepreneurship and sustainable development.

In the Summer of 2009, a group of Washington University in St. Louis students travelled to Uganda to work with Uganda Development and Health Associates, a grassroots NGO that had established a youth care center in one of the most underserved communities in Eastern Uganda. The students at the center to create a safe and supportive space where youth could address health issues, develop life skills, and spend time together in a positive environment. While the Wash U students worked to design programs to be implemented at the youth center, they learned about the youth, about their families, their passions and their interests. They were inspired by their stories, their kindness and creativity, their strength and tireless sense of humor, and the beauty and grace that was overwhelming in their presence. As the weeks passed by, they learned their stories, their struggles in poverty, and the cycle that they couldn’t seem to escape, that while the youth had dreams of becoming businessmen, pharmacists, nurses, and social workers, most of them hadn’t finished high school for lack of school fees. The students quickly learned that while a youth care center with health services could address issues as they arose, it was only tackling the tip of the iceberg—underneath which lied poverty that had crippled their lives by barring them from opportunities for education and healthy living. We learned that securing health would mean more than health education and services, they were set up to fail in their fight against the centuries of poverty that were embedded in their day to day lives. Change would mean more than giving them food and medicine, change would mean empowering them to take control over their lives in ways their social and financial conditions had never before allowed.

It was out of this search for a sustainable solution that would empower these talented and inspiring individuals that Crafts by Youth was born.

Crafts By Youth connects youth artisans in Uganda to an international market. By marketing their paperbead jewelry, Crafts By Youth provides the youth with Empowerment Wages which are three times the Fair Trade standard, through which the youth are able to address their immediate needs and with the help and guidance of UDHA save for their future goals of either receiving higher education or starting their own small business.

• Akhila Narla wrote (2 years ago):

  Yayy! Please invite all of your family/friends/contacts to follow Crafts By Youth to get the word out there about this exciting venture! We are so glad to see the overwhelming support we have received since our inception in October. We will keep you updated as we go through the SEIC competition and continue receiving shipments from Uganda!

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