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.
Mzuribeads paper beaders live in the village of Ndejje, Uganda (map), where they roll paper beads from strips of recycled magazines and posters. Prior to the founding of Mzuribeads, four of the women had been trained and were working to sell products through a defunct organization. These four women left then this organisation with knowledge of the paper bead, but little idea of how this skill could support their lives. At this time Angus Maclean (initial project founder), was a volunteer in Uganda, and was lucky to encounter these four beaders. He found a small market in Kampala, for their finished paper bead necklaces. He paid the women the full sale price upfront for each necklace, and invited them to be involved in the marketplace. The women finally felt they had a greater control their product and financial prospects. Nevertheless, the stall was small, and craft trade in Uganda is highly competitive.
Angus's sister, Kirstie MacLean came to volunteer in Uganda in 2006, and Angus introduced her to the paper beaders. She was inspired and confident that their talent could bring in sustainable incomes. After working on quality, design and communications, she decided to return to the UK with a load of the jewellery and beads. She slowly began to sell the products, and traveled to work with the paper beaders every three-four months. In 2008 Kirstie prematurely left her degree in Community Education at the University of Edinburgh, and invested her educational finances into Mzuribeads. She has been gradually improving management, quality and communication, leading the art of the paper bead making into a sustainable future. Kirstie has been working since 2006 as voluntary, but she is close to retrieving the sum of her initial investments. This year, Mzuribeads will financially assist her with office space.
Mzuribeads wishes to thank the following people involved;
Mildred Kibahigire, Harriet Yiga, and Edith Namanda; Team Leaders
Kirstie MacLean; Voluntary Founder/Director
Angus MacLean; Voluntary Founder/Accountant
Nadia Bhegani; Voluntary Quality Controller
Victoria Barnet; Photography website
Jason Frame; Voluntary Web Developer website
Learn about the bead
Our Ethics.
Although we are not for profit, and rely on voluntary support at present, we do not aim to do so in future. The director began this business with the ambition that she will one day not be needed, and Mzuribeads will be ran entirely by Ugandans. Kirstie MacLean, is currently the director and acting as the voluntary/not for profit middle man. The money accumulated will be used to establish a program to train the women in the cooperative, (who so wish), to become directors, quality controllers, global marketeers, product developers, etc. In short, we aim to generate enough funds to develop a sustainable business structure.
We have never received any funding. We are not a charity, because we believe our products are of standard to compete against the global market. We believe by experiencing all the good and bad aspects of a healthy growing business such as, hard work, continuous training, learning from our mistakes, etc, will make us strong enough to survive in the global marketplace, and ensure our workers a sustainable income.
Mzuribeads aim to generate a sustainable income by endeavoring to offer our customers ethical beads and the most fashionable and latest fashion accessory trends. This involves a large focus on quality control, design, and seasonable colours.
Mzuribeads have a number of further objectives. Any accumulation of profit is invested into social, environmental and economic developmental projects.
We 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.
Mzuribeads is a cooperative business, which pays a set price, decided as a group, and as advised by the Fairtrade Foundation.
Why aren’t handicrafts Fairtrade certified?
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, which are each unique, made of varied materials and have highly varied production processes and costs. However, FLO is currently working with the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT) to explore whether we could work towards a certification programme for these products in the future.
