Art changes people’s lives. That sounds like it should be on a cheesy bumper sticker; but ask UA student Linn Groft, and she will tell you it’s true.

Last summer, Groft traveled to Karen, Kenya, to volunteer at Hekima Place, a home for girls whose lives have been affected by AIDS. She spent May through July immersed in the culture of the people in the Nairobi area, witnessing first-hand the great poverty as well as resilient hope of a developing country.

According to the CIA World Fact Book, Kenya has an unemployment rate of 40 percent. Groft said that, several times during her stay in Kenya, she was approached by women asking her for work—cooking, cleaning, or anything task she might pay them to do. Parents—especially single mothers—have a hard time finding work to support their families, and if children can’t afford to buy books and supplies, they can’t go to school.

One Kenyan factory is using art to provide employment for about 350 people, many of them women. One UA student witnessed where art meets compassion.

Kazuri Beads was founded in 1975 by Lady Susan Wood, a known West African philanthropist. Kazuri Beads was created with the twofold purpose of producing ceramic beads and providing jobs for many of the unemployed workers in the area. Kazuri means “small and beautiful” in Swahili; and according to Groft, who toured the factory, the beads are beautiful—but so are the opportunities the factory provides for Kenyans who need the income. Groft said a majority of the employees in the factory are single mothers who have no other source of income.

Groft watched the workers make the beads through the whole process, from start to finish.

First, the workers process the clay. Then they mold it into beads. After the beads are dry, they paint them with solid colors and patterns, and then fire them in big ovens. The factory also makes pottery, mostly things like plates, bowls, and coffee mugs; as well as unusual ceramic items such as cuff-links and statues.

Groft said the coolest thing she saw while she was at the factory was an intricately-designed curtain made entirely of beads and twine.

She said the factory was modest, but had a friendly, open atmosphere.

“The women seemed fairly content and happy,” Groft said. “They pay them a good wage.”

In Kenya, a good wage means three meals on the table and an education for children. A good wage can literally mean the difference between life and death, hope and despair.

Since Kazuri products are marketed internationally on the Internet, the factory is able to provide better than a good wage: a sure, sustainable income. With new customers ordering every day, the workers are almost certain that they will wake up every morning with a job to go to. That type of certainty in an unstable economy is a tremendous blessing.

“There’s so much poverty in Kenya,” said Groft. “You can’t just hand out food and expect it to go away.”

Groft said she thinks Kazuri Beads is offering a viable solution for the poverty in Kenya. The owners, she said, are simply using their entrepreneurial abilities along with the workers’ artistic skills to create a solid business.

Speaking of the founders, Groft said, “They felt this was the best way to give back to their community.”

When these women workers mold the clay and paint the designs, they are literally molding and painting their futures, and the futures of their children.

It seems amazing that something so small, like a simple ceramic bead, can be so beautiful to so many.

(Linn kept a blog while she was in Kenya, and one of her entries features her tour of Kazuri. Check out this link: http://catchingnewrain.blogspot.com/2009/05/small-and-beautiful.html )

by Christi Positan