Our Story & Ethics

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Home > Our Story & Ethics

Our Story & Ethics

Mzuribeads is one of the many inspirational projects moving away from charitable aid, and onto the concept of business enterprise for sustainable income and development.

OUR STORY

The women of Mzuribeads live in the village of Ndejje, Uganda (map), where they roll paper beads from strips of recycled magazines and posters. Prior to Mzuribeads, four of the women had been trained in the skill of bead making through a now defunct organization. Although they were left with the skills to make paper beads, they had little knowledge of how to use this skill to support their lives.

Angus MacLean (initial project founder), was a volunteer in Uganda when he encountered the four beaders. He located a small market in Kampala to sell their finished paper bead necklaces, and paid the women upfront for the full sale price of each necklace. The women were invited to become involved in the marketplace, and soon gained a greater confidence and sense of control of their product and financial prospects. However, the stall was small, and the women were up against a craft trade in Uganda which was highly competitive.

In 2006, Angus's sister, Kirstie MacLean, came to volunteer in Uganda, and was introduced to the paper beaders. She was inspired by the beauty of their work and confident that their talents could generate a sustainable income for the women. After working on quality, design and communications, Kirstie returned to the UK with heaps of jewelry and beads. She slowly began to sell the products, and made several trips back to Uganda to continue her work with the beaders. In 2008, Kirstie prematurely left her degree in Community Education at the University of Edinburgh, and invested her educational finances into Mzuribeads. Since that time, she has continued to concentrate on improving management, quality and communications, and has successfully lead the art of handmade paper bead production into a sustainable future for women in Uganda.

Mzuribeads wishes to thank the following people involved;

Edith Namanda - Project Manager (Uganda)
Kirstie MacLean - Founder/Director
Angus MacLean - Founder/Volunteer Accountant (UK)
Laura Coleman - Manager of Mzuribeads.us (US)
Barbara Malungu -Volunteer Communications (Uganda)

OUR ETHICS

Mzuribeads currently operates as a not for profit, and relies on support from its voluntary Director, Kirstie MacLean, and other individuals. However, a major goal of the director is to one day have the company run entirely by Ugandans.

To this end, monies accumulated through sales of product will be used to establish a program to train the women in the cooperative to become directors, quality controllers, global marketeers, product developers, etc. The goal is to generate sufficient funds to develop a sustainable business structure.

Mzuribeads is not a charity, and has never received any funding. We believe in our products and its ability to compete against the global market. We understand that by experiencing all of the good and bad aspects of a healthy growing business (ie. hard work, continuous training, learning from our mistakes, etc,) we will become strong enough to survive in the global marketplace, and ensure our workers a sustainable income.

The number one object of Mzuribeads is to generate a sustainable income by offering our customers top quality, fashionable and ethical beads by focusing on quality control, design, and seasonable colors. In addtion, Mzuribeads has an ongoing commitment to invest any accumulated profits into social, environmental and economic developmental projects.

Further objectives of the company aim:

To promote and encourage civic education to the members of the company.
To promote independence to the members of the company
To commit to an equal opportunities policy
To encourage member involvement in the decision making
To promote good governance by encouraging human rights and to instill a good working relationship with the members and the communities.
To network and provide links with other associations, organizations, corporations, institutions and individuals within and outside the UK whose objectives are similar to those of the company.

Why handicrafts are not Fairtrade certified?

Mzuribeads is a cooperative business which pays a set price as decided upon as a group, and as advised by the Fairtrade Foundation.

Fairtrade Certification and its system of minimum pricing were designed initially for commodity products. It is technically difficult to adapt this model of standardized minimum pricing to crafts and other products made by small-scale artisans, as each are unique, made from varied materials and have highly varied production processes and costs. However, FLO is currently working with the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT) to explore our option to work towards a certification program for these products in the future.

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