nakate (and my little-blogspot-lover's first giveaway ever).

i've never done a giveaway here before because it never felt like it was quite time. but when shanley, a one woman wonder who's changing the world, came to me with her new project nakate, i was in. 

"I went to Uganda this past summer to document the work of an aid organization in the Luwero district, which is off the main highway running through Uganda to southern Sudan. I spent several days focusing on Kakooge, a village almost completely wiped out by AIDS in the past few decades. The families left are struggling intensely: many mothers left alone with children, wrecked by polygamy, without hope, many fathers that openly wept when speaking to me, saying that they could not feed their children, that they were too weak from the disease to work. 

I discovered, while there, that there was no market for wares in the village. Even those who were strong enough to work couldn't find sustainable occupations. I struggled, especially, with the way the women in the village were fighting to feed their families and were often brutally mistreated or taken advantage of in the process.

I had heard that people that had traveled to Uganda on medical missions had brought back beads from Kakooge, and I sought out the women who made them with my guide. I found that many of them were depending on the beads to pay their children's school fees, their rent, buy food, etc. but that sales were sporadic, and couldn't be counted on. I brought back a huge bag of beads intending to make sales more regular, and met Emily, who was finished up her MBA and had a heart for helping the impoverished. Together, we set up the Nakate Project, which sells the necklaces online, and at parties held by volunteers in our area. We pay the women back three times what they could make within the country, and use the rest of the money to invest in business opportunities for them in Kakooge, in effort to bring a sustainable market back in the area."

one lucky blog reader will receive the kaunna necklace. 

in order to enter please visit nakate and leave a comment below. 

for more chances to win, tweet or blog about the project and then leave an additional comment letting me know. the giveaway will close thursday at midnight--i will choose a winner at random on friday morning. 


i hope you all are as excited as i am--it's for such a great and worthy cause! happy monday!