I was born overseas. This nation where I was born and lived for my first seven years was badly impacted by civil war and poverty. The nation's capital city was built on two sides of a big river, and one of the invading armies' devastating acts was to blow up the two bridges that united the city. When I was very small, my father, never a great driver, was driving us through the night in an old jeep, and following a map to find his route home. Unfortunately the old map didn't show that the bridge had been destroyed, and I, just a little girl, in a car with no seat belts, hit the roof of the jeep with a thud I still remember.
The sewers destroyed, people were reduced to using the ditches beside the roads. Tuberculosis affected about 14% of the population, but there was no effective health services, and no funds for medicine. I remember as a child walking in winter, and seeing frozen blood in the road ice where people with TB had coughed up their disease. What could they do but endure?
My mother, now 86, still remembers with sadness the women trying to survive this horror. She still talks of some of the international soldiers who were stationed nearby taking advantage of the desperation of the women affected by the conflict.
The diminutive figures of the women, carrying such heavy loads, also speak of poverty of nutrition. I sometimes feel teary and frustrated at the contrast between poverty and riches. We in Australia find it hard to understand the difference between our own life, and the life of a woman who lives within an income below the poverty index in a nation with no safety net.
At The Fair Trader most of our products are made by women, and give women makers a safe, fair and enabling wage for her work. These are the women that must endure the indignity of living in a nation with poverty stress. Her work brings life and safety both for herself and her family.
I think all of us know the beauty of Bali, but there are women who live stressful undignified lives on the Denpasar streets. We have new candles from Gather and Harvest, stunning and beautifully scented candles. Lee from Gather and Harvest spends a little extra, purchasing glass vessels for her candles from the Bali Street Mums Project.
The precious women of the project collect glass wine bottles from the recycling centre, and hand cut and polish them. This simple decision to use these glass vessels is slowly transforming these women's lives, providing them with purposeful work, a living wage, health care and safe and clean housing for themselves and their children.
Beautifully scented and with a 55+ hour burn time, Gather and Harvest candles are not only affordable, but each purchase helps empower some of the most vulnerable women in our world. When you purchase one of these candles as a gift, you are participating in the joy and responsibility of giving, and celebrating the sisterhood of women supporting one another, even a woman you don't know, but still take the time to care for.
From Lee (Gather and Harvest Founder):
"The work that we do in Bali is what I'm passionate about. Our humble little candle has done so much to improve the lives of underprivileged women living in Bali. In the last 3 years we have provided work opportunities, training and fair pay for over 30 Mums. Each of these women are mothers and are now able to provide more for their children and change the course of their lives for the better. The UN estimates that a woman reinvests over 90% of her income back into her family, where as men reinvest only 40%. By providing employment for these street Mums of Bali, our candles are not only assisting these women, but the next generation as well. Thanks so much for supporting us."
With Love and Gratitude,
Bron
