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| Plymouth Magazine, December 2006 |
Heartfelt Art
Lisa Thomas's hobby of beading silverware helps support an African village
By Kelly Westhoff
Plymouth resident Lisa Thomas is a busy woman. She is a wife and mother of two. She is a small business owner. She is a Girl Scout troop leader. She is a weekly volunteer at a local non-profit organization. And if that's not enough, Thomas also supports a village in Africa by selling beaded silverware that she makes in her free time.
Kawelanga, the village Thomas helps support, is located in Zambia, a landlocked nation in southern Africa, which is one of the poorest on the continent. The average income is a meager $800 a year; eighty-six percent of the population lives below the poverty line. The life expectancy rate is just 40 years of age, and HIV/AIDS has hit the country hard. According to UNAIDS, the disease has left roughly 65,000 Zambian children orphaned. The village of Kawelanga is not immune to this startling statistic. The village population numbers 1,200, yet over half of the population, 860 people, is children under the age of 18.
Thomas learned about Kawelanga from World Vision, a Christian-based organization dedicated to tackling global poverty. The organization is well-known, Thomas points out, because of its adopt-a-child program. Because that program has been so successful, World Vision crafted a similar program for needy communities. It requires a three-year commitment from the sponsor, who agrees to send $5,000 each year. The money is spent on materials and construction projects—like fresh-water wells and schools—that can benefit everyone in the nearby area. Even though Thomas was drawn to the idea of helping support an entire village, she didn't have an extra $5,000 sitting around. That's when she hatched a plan.
Thomas and friend Lori Westling had been leading an after-school art club at Heritage Christian Academy, a Maple Grove school her children attend. Neither woman considered herself an artist, so they were constantly flipping through craft books in search of new activities. One project that Thomas and Westling came to love was embellishing silverware by wrapping wire and beads around the handles.
Together, the two decided to step up the project. They bought quality, serving utensils and switched out the school's bulk beads for Swarovski crystals. They practiced twirling wire into tight swirls and came up with a signature design. Next, they took their decorative wares to local craft fairs. People complimented the work and purchased the beaded silverware. Thomas and Westling had found a way to make money that would enable them to adopt a village through World Vision.
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The remainder of this article can be found in the December 2006 issue of Plymouth Magazine.
To learn more about World Vision, visit www.worldvision.org.