Jewelry-making project helps refugee women earn money and adjust to a new culture | The Courier-Journal | courier-journal.com

We have started a project like the one referenced below in our Nepali church, TriEak Parmeshwar Mandali. The difference for us is that the jewelry is being made by Nepali women in major Indian cities who have become victims of sex trafficking. In an effort to help these women get out of the sex trade and make money for themselves, the Bhutanese-Nepali refugees in our church are buying and selling the jewelry in the community and among coworkers, neighbors, and friends. All the money we collect is being sent back to the women in India who have made the jewelry.

Jewelry-making project helps refugee women earn money and adjust to a new culture | The Courier-Journal | courier-journal.com: "The project is based on the micro-credit, small-loan practices that help create female entrepreneurs in Third World countries like Bangladesh. It advances women supplies — stones and setting materials — that are paid for when the finished jewelry is sold.

The concept was first adapted locally in the spring of 2010 at Kentucky Refugee Ministries.

“We worked with Bhutanese women making jewelry at Kentucky Refugee Ministries and helped them sell to Heine Bros. Coffee,” said Staci Kottkamp, a former volunteer. “That May, I hosted a party at my home that was very well attended. About 50 people came through, and we did about $1,000 in sales.”"