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PHILANTHROPY
Women Helping Women |
| Written by Mary Welch |
| January 26, 2010 |
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“You changed my life!” That’s what Stephanie Jolluck was told by one of her Mayan artisans the last time she went to Guatemala. Jolluck is one of hundreds of women (several of whom live in the metro Atlanta area) who have businesses that buy the crafts and products of women in Third World countries. As the local women earn wages from their traditional skills, they are able to help support and educate their families. “I can see the difference we’re making together,” says Jolluck. “I’m creating positions that will bring about social change. We’re helping end poverty. I can see that they’re living in nice houses and driving trucks. On my last trip there, one of the women told me she was able to buy land and that she was able to afford medical attention for her two children. It’s so gratifying.” 
Jolluck’s company is an interesting blend of social activism and preservation of the local tradition of textiles. Her company, Coleccion Luna, sells bags and pillows made from gently used traditional clothing. She also sells wood carvings, many with religious themes. Jolluck travels four to six times a year to the Highland region of Guatemala, working directly with about 40 women.
She creates the designs, and the Guatemalan women sew them, using a line of textiles created from recycled indigenous clothing ‒ huipiles (blouse-like garments), cortes (skirts/utilitarian fabric), and fajas (belts). The pieces might be handwoven, hand-embroidered, woven on a backstrap loom, woven by treadle loom, or machine embroidered, all depending on the design and the skill and interest of the craftswoman. The local women set the pricing and have come to understand and practice the laws of supply and demand, Jolluck says. Enid Draluck is on the Georgia board of directors and runs the U.S. operation of MonkeyBiz South Africa, which imports statues, dollies, and coasters with animal designs and traditional beadwork. MonkeyBiz was founded by two ceramic artists, Barbara Jackson and Shirley Fintz, and it is instrumental in the revival of an ancient tradition in South Africa. 
“I became involved in MonkeyBiz through a friend who used to chair The Atlanta Women’s Foundation,” says Draluck. “The whole idea resonated with me, and then I met Barbara Jackson’s daughter, who lives in Atlanta. We hit it off, and we helped set up a 501 (c)(3). We have 450 artisans, 99.9 percent are women, and they live outside Cape Town.”
MonkeyBiz provides the beads to the women (and one man). All the artists are self-taught, and, with experience, their designs become more intricate and interpretative. Prices range from $24 up to $1,000. Historically, South African beadwork has been the domain of women largely within the Xhosa, Zulu, Ndebele, and Sotho communities. The women are introduced to the craft directly through their mothers, grandmothers, and other women in the community. “They do the animals they know – dogs, chickens,” Draluck says. “People think that because they live in Africa that they’ve seen giraffes, rhinos, but they haven’t. No two pieces of art look alike, even by the same artists.” What MonkeyBiz is creating is a micro-business for these women and their families, but also for the community. MonkeyBiz runs a wellness clinic in Cape Town that provides skills and training and HIV/AIDS support for low-income HIV positive women. The center has been thriving since 2003 and caters to 60 women a week offering them beadwork training, HIV/AIDS counseling, yoga therapy, homeopathic HIV/AIDS treatment, and basic nutrition. “It’s mind-boggling what’s happened to these women,” Draluck says. “They live in brick houses instead of shacks. Their kids go to school because they can afford the school uniforms and supplies. They can visualize their success because they’ve seen other women experience it.” Both Jolluck and MonkeyBiz sell their products online and in select stores. Fragile, a store in Sandy Springs, Ga., carries some MonkeyBiz’s products. And Jolluck works with organizations such as CARE to help promote and sell the products. Nadia Bredthauer was born in Ecuador, but lives in Atlanta and runs ProPueblo, which helps residents of the Ecuadorian coastal communities on the western slopes of the Chongon-Colonche mountain range. The nonprofit helps distribute work done by more than 400 artisans, half of whom are women. The products are mostly handwoven baskets, tagua nut carvings, and recycled paper. Other artisans use woods such as bamboo and balsa, and other products such as abaca, banana husk, and toquilla to make Panama hats. Regional stones ‒ pumice and sandstone ‒ are used to make candleholders and other items. The group sells the products to various outlets including the San Diego Zoo and a store called Ten Thousand Villages. ProPueblo focuses on raising living standards, improving basic infrastructure, job training, employment, and international marketing of high-quality Ecuadorian artisan products. ProPueblo sales average about $180,000 a year. 
Margaret Spencer sells a variety of items made by artisans, again mostly women, from Kenya. Her store, Latchstring Mercantile, is an antique store in Talking Rock, Ga.
Spencer became involved with an orphanage in Kenya, through her church. She and her husband started buying locally made goods and selling them in their store. “We go once or twice a year, and then it takes us about six month to sell the merchandise,” Spencer says. “We just buy what we can, take it with us on the plane, and sell it. All of our proceeds go to the orphanage, but we do pay the women so they’re making money as well. We’re not a great source of income but they certainly get money on the side from us.” For each of these Georgia women, it’s a win-win situation. Their customers get custom-made, authentic crafts and artwork, and the purchases help clothe, feed, house, and educate families. Jolluck certainly sees it as part of her social mission to help uplift the women economically. “It is so important. A few years back these women and their kids were living in city dumps. Now they are having a decent life.” Coleccion Luna Money Biz ProPueblo  Mary Welch is Atlanta city editor of Womenetics: and a freelance writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Dawson Times, Plan Your Meeting magazine, and Atlanta Business magazine. She was editor-in-chief of Atlanta Woman magazine and editor of Business to Business and Catalyst magazines.
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