It's a Season to be Thankful with Macy's & Rwanda Path to Peace Baskets

Disclosure: I am a member of the Everywhere Society and Everywhere provided me with a complimentary Rwanda Path to Peace basket. However, all thoughts and opinions expressed herein are my own.

This holiday season my family has so much to be thankful for. Our health, wisdom, the necessities – most importantly, we have each other. Thanksgiving to us isn’t about the holiday that we’re taught in grade school. To us, it’s about quality time together, spending the day enjoying good food and each others company. Of course, I’m usually cooking for days and a total stress case, but this year I vow to have a simpler approach. To slow down and savor the moments with my family. The older kids are growing up so fast, I want to enjoy our special day and what it’s truly about.

Family. Love. Gratefulness.

Every hand woven basket comes with a Certificate of Authenticity

This is the second holiday season that I’ve partnered with the Macy’s Rwanda Path to Peace Initiative. I’m sharing with you the beauty of these hand woven baskets made by Rwandan women. Here’s more:

THE HISTORY OF PATH TO PEACE

In 1994, Rwanda was torn apart by a brutal and swift genocide-in roughly 100 days, close to one million Rwandan citizens were murdered. In the aftermath, the population of the small African nation was nearly 70% women. Faced with an uncertain future, these women turned to their past and reclaimed their unique heritage of weaving. Drawing strength from this common history and ancient art form, brave women from both sides of the conflict began working together to rebuild their communities and their lives.

In 2002 Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), visited Rwanda and was struck by the beauty of the traditional woven baskets. Moved by the pride and strength of the weavers, she reached out to American businesswoman, and UNIFEM supporter, Willa Shalit in hopes of developing a market for Rwandan basketwork. After UNIFEM made initial contacts with the Rwandan Government and the association of genocide widows, Willa began working with weavers in Rwanda and partners in America. Three years later, she founded the Rwanda Path to Peace project in partnership with Macy’s.

A global market was established for these unique works of art, and in September 2005 Macy’s introduced the very first Path to Peace Baskets. The modest collection, only available online at macys.com and in Macy’s flagship Herald Square store, included every basket the weavers could produce over the course of the year.

Though relatively small, the 2005 collection was met with an enthusiastic response, quickly selling out online and gaining national media attention. The sale of the baskets provided real, sustainable income to rural women who had never before earned money in their lives.

Today, the Path to Peace project is larger than ever, employing thousands of weavers and impacting tens of thousands of lives. The impact of the income-generating work the project creates
Focused on trade, not aid, the Rwanda Path to Peace project puts the power of opportunity into the hands of the women of Rwanda, providing not only income but the chance to take an active role in the shaping of their future.

THE IMPACT

A HAND UP, NOT A HANDOUT

Far more than charity, the Rwanda Path to Peace project puts income directly into the hands of Rwandan women, empowering them to take control of their own lives. These earnings are used for food, clothing, school supplies, water purification, healthcare and personal savings.

RECONCILIATION

The Path to Peace project employs 2,500 weavers across Rwanda. The weavers belong to smaller weaving groups, organized locally in the many villages that dot the landscape. Amazingly, every group consists of both Hutu and Tutsi weavers, women from both sides of the 1994 conflict. These women sit with each other, talking and laughing, while their children play nearby. By weaving together, they are slowly but surely healing themselves and their society.

STRENGTHENING FAMILIES

For the weavers having an income means planning for the future, and many are eager to provide a better life for their children. In addition, the stability of a reliable income has helped alleviate much of the stress of everyday domestic life-stress that until recently was intensified by poverty. Today, husbands are helping out by tending to the children while their wives weave, harvesting raw materials and transporting finished baskets. By working together, these women and men are forging stronger families built on mutual respect and partnership.

HIV/AIDS

The Path to Peace project has greatly improved conditions for HIV-positive weavers by providing them with real, usable income. This increased income allows them to better meet their nutritional needs, increasing the effectiveness of their medications. No longer stigmatized by the community, they are instead respected for earning an income. They have their pride back, and with it hope for the future.

CHANGING THE LIVES OF CHILDREN

One of the most inspiring aspects of this innovative partnership is the direct, positive impact it has had on thousands of Rwandan children. Income from the baskets provides food, clothing, healthcare, school uniforms, shoes, school supplies and more. The weaver’s children now have paper and pencils so they can learn to write, and they are very proud of their parent’s ability to provide them with necessities that have become life-changing luxuries.

PUBLIC HEALTH

The income from the Path to Peace project helps the weavers maintain their good health. Entire communities have clean water because families can afford water purification tablets and/or bottled water. Cases of malaria, a deadly disease carried by mosquitoes, have been greatly reduced now that weavers can afford SuperNet mosquito netting that protects them from the infected insects. And perhaps most importantly medical insurance, once a luxury, is now readily available and affordable to protect the weavers and their families.

I’m so inspired by these amazing women that have been able to help their families and communities by weaving these beautiful baskets. It’s a labor of love, and it’s so unreal to see the baskets in person. They are gorgeous and unique, and to know they are handcrafted allows you to appreciate every detail.

This Thanksgiving I will have both of my Rwanda Path to Peace baskets out. I’ll serve bread in one and have crayons and paper in the other for the kids to have fun with during the long day. Our guests will surely ask about these gorgeous baskets and it’s an opportunity to share with them the history of the baskets and the work that goes into them. I think it’s a perfect position for my basket, to share with our families what hard work can accomplish and a way to be grateful for the very simplest things that we often take for granted. Eventually, I’d like to designate a space on the wall for these treasures, as they are also works of art.