The G.R.O. Artisans invited their local and international customers to participate in a selection survey which ultimately determined the new 2010 design lines. The women have been working since December on the new designs, incorporating locally sourced natural material such as cow horn, Job’s tears, recycled glass, and mountain clay.  The new eco-line is enhanced by the use of high quality materials and fastenings, creating a true artisan line highlighting the beauty of Lesotho and the talent of its artisans.

The new catalogue will be launched March 1 - join our newsletter to receive the new catalogue or contact us at artisans@grofoundation.org to learn more about ordering!

Bracelet features recycled glass, amythest, Job

Preparing for the customer survey

Turquoise necklace for 2010

Posted under Letters from Lesotho

Working to prepare a Sesotho translation of our Family Scholarship student contract.

speaking to the students during the Family Scholarship After School Leadership Club.

Posted under Letters from Lesotho

The artisans visited a youth project in South Africa that produces unique and beautiful recycled glass beads.  This youth project, in a poor township of South Africa, provides youth in the community with not only skills and training but an opportunity to earn income.

The lampworked beads, made from used beer bottles and made one-by-one, present a beautiful shine and the kiln-fired recycled glass shows a earthy, matte finish.

Look forward to seeing these new beads in our 2010 eco-line to be launched March 1!

Posted under Letters from Lesotho

The first day of eight days of practical training here at the Grannies Poultry Project.  Poultry experts from Noch Solutions will conduct eight full days, over eight weeks, of hands-on, on-site training with the group.  After the first day, I’m exhausted.

The fist morning started by disinfecting and cleaning the coop, the waterers and feeders, and laying down fresh sawdust. The new coop, which was recently renovated by G.R.O. Foundation, can easily hold up to 400 meat birds.

By 12:00, Ntate Moshe and Jazzy arrived with 200 day-old baby chicks and 16 bags of feed.  Each chick was carefully unpacked and counted, while Thekanyane carefully dipped each chick’s beak in the waterers containing a special blend of electrolytes and sugars.

From day-old, these chicks will be 2.3kg butcher-ready meat birds in 6 weeks.  They will consume 1600 kgs of feed, and they will require a lot of work and attention.  The goal is to quadrouple production from 100 monthly to 400 monthly.  This major increase in production also means in increase in profits available to the Grannies Support Group.   The Grannies have recruited the help of three orphaned young adults in their community who will paid support workers on their project, creating jobs and developing sustainable skills.

We are looking forward to watching the Grannies and their chicks grow in 2010.  Thank you to everyone who helped purchase the chicks through the Gifts of Hope campaign, and to the Canada Fund who helped us provide the practical training. You can learn more about the project at www.grofoundation.org

Posted under Letters from Lesotho

Yesterday we collected 17kgs of beads that we ordered from our South African wholesaler as part of the start-up kits for the G.R.O. Artisans Collective.  Today we spent hours unpacking, counting beads, and dreaming of our new 2010 designs.  Thank you to the Canada Fund / Canadian High Comission for the purchase of the start-up kits, and thanks to the ladies for painfully counting every last bead.

Posted under Letters from Lesotho

Once a day it comes - dawn. A stark reminder of how in such a short time my internal clock has quickly begun to reorganize itself. Everything seems to happen earlier here as life roughly sorts itself out around the Sun’s rise and fall. The earlier you are up the more you can fit into a day and when some days seem to slip away simply waiting to try and accomplish something you realize this time is precious. The day comes swiftly and with it the dusty roads pass 4+1 taxis between themselves as people have already embraced the new with the sounds of voices mixing with cattle, poultry, and sheep. I seem to be joining them. Waking up at 5:45 no longer seems to be much of a chore as my room fills with light. The closing of the day comes with sun down which nears 20:00 this time of year. I find myself looking to sleep not too far beyond that. Days bring heat and dark cools quickly.

Last Saturday we sprung up shortly after 4:00 and were on the road to Mokhotolong before an hour had passed. The idea was to summit the tallest mountain in Southern Africa, Thaba Ntlenyana (3482m). The best laid plan can easily fall apart in the mountains. Ours, to begin, was nowhere near the best and we found ourselves 90 minutes away from our destination surrounded in snow. Our small expedition had ended in failure not due to personal inabilities but the mechanical ineptitude of our small car. By 7:00 we were resigned to throwing snowballs at various targets and enjoying what none of us had ever expected to witness – snow at the peak of an African summer. Hands numb from packing we retreated toward the border town of Butha-Buthe where we headed back into the low-lying mountains of the Tsehlanyane National Park. Here, we hiked through damp bush and swelled streams. After a small mishap, where a backpack ended up floating downstream, fully submerging ourselves in the freezing water seemed to be the best option. After all of that getting up that early didn’t seem to be such a tough choice to make after all.

Living outside Maseru, the capital city, things move at a slower pace.

Time, travel, people, and nights – all of it.

Watching children head toward school at 6:00 makes you think that they understand something I did not on my first trip to Lesotho. If you want to take advantage of what the day has to offer you better not waste any of it sleeping.

Posted under Letters from Lesotho

For the second time this year The G.R.O. Artisans Collective have received national attention and publicity from the business sector of Lesotho. The first was an article published in the SMME Support Network Lesotho’s SMME News with an piece entitled ‘Building Communities – One Enterprise at a Time’ and now from The Public Eye, nationally distributed newspaper. Yesterday, the article was released as part of a special insert feature ‘One Nation, One World’ to mark World Aids Day this coming Tuesday. Thank you to Tsepo of The Public Eye for his support. You can read the article in full below.

G.R.O. Artisans: Building Livelihoods

At 8 a.m. the door to The G.R.O. Artisans Collective is open where the morning chatter of women can be heard as the warm summer wind sweeps through the BEDCO compound in Leribe. Perhaps uniquely, this collective of artisans was formed with the primary purpose of providing economical empowerment and livelihood building for women affected by or living with HIV/AIDS. The G.R.O. Artisans face the daily realities of this national epidemic in their own personal lives and their community. Undeterred by the overwhelming challenges, these women have banded together in a collective effort to shatter the stigma of HIV/AIDS and demonstrate both the emotional and economic power of a collaborative effort. In accordance with the laws of Lesotho an HIV workplace policy ensures equality in their membership and any visitor, whether a paying customer or not, has access to both male and female condoms and printed sexual health information. Finally, the Artisans are actively engaged in promoting the skills and talents of HIV positive women in their community and you will often see them at festivals and the Maseru Bazaar.

This month, the women have begun to prepare for a move to a larger BEDCO office where they will increase the size of the current retail space and have room to expand the number of members from four to ten by end of year 2010. Designing and producing handcrafted fashion jewelry ‘Majoyce, ‘Mathabang,’ Mamosebetsi, and ‘Makhotalang prepare for both national and international markets with sales distribution that spans Lesotho, South Africa, Canada, and The United States. The fledgling jewelry business is one of the many Basotho success stories across Lesotho in the small business sector. The Collective operates on a business model known as a social enterprise, a not-for-profit company that provides its members with a steady income, ongoing business training, social programming, as well as family and healthcare support. The healthcare coverage, which is one of the unique qualities of this business model, ensures a percentage of the Collective’s profits are invested into a comprehensive plan for the members, which provides for drug coverage, childcare and funeral plans.

With an aim to advance The Collective’s socially-oriented mandate of community development and the empowerment of women the members are committed to actively searching for a local professional Mosotho woman to coordinate and assist in managing the business mid-January. This project was made possible because the women were able to secure the initial start up capital as well as business and leadership training from the Canadian-born Lesotho-based G.R.O. Foundation, which currently bases all of its operations out of Leribe. The G.R.O. Foundation, founded in 2005, is a Non-Profit Non-Governmental Organization working for the advancement and empowerment of individuals and communities by providing grassroots assistance to promote sustainable social development. With the continued support and strong bond of partnership between the G.R.O. Artisans and G.R.O. Foundation Lesotho the artisans have successfully established lasting ties with other Basotho small business initiatives and leaders including Mr. Raleche of Business Development Trust and Ms. Makama of SMME Support Network, both based in Maseru. These ties amongst the national business community will ensure the ability of the G.R.O. Artisans to connect with other small enterprises and allow for expansion and support of community-based business trainings.

Looking ahead to the Christmas season you will be able to purchase the handcrafted jewelry of The G.R.O. Artisans Collective at the monthly Bazaars in Maseru and the Maseru Christmas Craft Fair on December 5. Year round the jewelry is available to all fashionable women at BEDCO Leribe, Setsoto Weavers in TY, The Leribe Hotel, Leribe, The Blue Mountain Inn, Teyateyeng, and Mohale’s Hoek Inn, Mohale’s Hoek. To contact the G.R.O. Artisans by phone +26658132695 (Majoyce) or by email artisans@grofoundation.org

Posted under Letters from Lesotho

The heat of the tarmac as I descended the stairs from the small prop plane was a frank testament to my departure from the winter months that had begun to descend on Ontario. After a few months of Canadian summer I was again facing months of sun with heat by day and the light chill of evening after the sun has been eclipsed by the mountains. Walking into the Moshoeshoe International Airport, just outside of the Capital Maseru, I was greeted with a feeling of confidence that was in direct contrast to the nervous excitement of my arrival last April on my first trip to Lesotho. Driving north toward Hlotse the browns and reds of the surrounding landscape have been concealed in tones of green to a far greater extent than I could have imagined only a few short months ago. Although the seasonal tones had changed the public transport vans, known as combis, continued to race along the highway merging on and off the road in the staccato manner of my last visit while people shuffled to and from the hundreds of villages into the towns of Teyateyaneng and Maputsoe.

“Coco!” I shouted to announce my arrival to both Jean and Jamie as I stepped out of the car.

“Welcome back, how was your trip?” they both responded as I walked through the back door.

All of the notes and preparation for the implementation of our recently awarded CIDA grant would have to wait until tomorrow. Three continents in about as many days is enough to tire the most seasoned traveler. Aside from my immediate desire for a solid nights rest I had been looking forward to this moment since my stomach felt the aircraft take flight from the Moshoeshoe runway. We sat around and tried not to talk about the work of the upcoming week as the day gave way to the Maluti mountains. It sure felt good to be back.

Jason Clark

G.R.O. Lesotho Operations Coordinator

Posted under Letters from Lesotho, Notes from Lesotho

Throughout this week, I am taking the GRO Scholars to the local internet café here in Leribe for internet training.  The café only has one computer with internet, which we reserved for four days so that the students could go after school in groups of four or five.

I was a bit surprised to learn that not one of the students had ever used the internet before. I set up email accounts for all of our scholars so that they could learn email basics this week.  Each of them get 30 minutes on the internet, during which they learn how to log-in to their accounts, compose and check email, type in web addresses, and use search engines.  Leading up to this internet training, I had completed basic computer training with the students using the Molapo High School computer lab and individual computer time on my laptop.  During these times, the students were taught how to type properly and use programs like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint.

One of our GRO Scholars, Marahaba, said how she was so grateful to have learned the internet and how wonderful of an experience it was for her.  The students took notes when they were not sitting at the computer (the other three observed while I would show one different features).  Afterwards, they were looking up prices at the internet café (which is fairly affordable for the students) so that they could come back on their own time.  I hope they do so often!

Sophie Kim
G.R.O. Volunteer

Posted under Letters from Lesotho, Uncategorized

On August 28, 2009 Leribe district challenged HIV and AIDS stigma and discrimination.   The festival, the first of its kind, was brought together by local and international NGOs and the government of Lesotho.  G.R.O. Foundation hosted the “Kids Corner” with a jumping castle, face painting and frisbee games. The G.R.O. Scholars, all high school students affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, demonstrated their support by volunteering all day at the event.  The G.R.O. Artisans, a collective of HIV positive mothers, challenged stigma in their own way by teaching kids how to make bracelets.   The Olympic Youth Ambassador Program and Kick 4 Life joined us in offering HIV prevention and Life Skills games to the over 1,000 people who attended the event.  We would like to thank our community partners and friends who helped make this powerful and important event possiblem and we stood up and said ‘no’ to stigma and discrimination.

Posted under Letters from Lesotho