sisters

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about paper beads in Beauty for Ashes, explaining the history of this endeavor we've embarked on. Well, this month we launched our new jewelry line – KEZA Beads (KEZABeads), which are hand crafted in Rwanda by the women of SOR.
This accomplishment is just the beginning…

With KEZA Beads, a new gender equality campaign, putting together the new training facility, fundraising, and new interns, the directors at SOR felt as though we just didn’t have enough work to do. So naturally, we decided to take on another project…soap and candle making.

Becca Stevens (www.beccastevens.org) and 6 other women traveled from Nashville to Kigali, Rwanda last month to share their expertise in the skin care and candle business. Becca is the founder of Thistle Farms (www.thistlefarms.org) a skin care line, and Magdalene House – a non-profit that works with prostitutes, female drug addicts and former prisoners in Nashville. They were an eclectic group, each with their own strong personalities and amazing gifting. And they were each a beautiful gift to us.

These women didn’t just come to burn themselves with beeswax and measure soap ingredients…they came to share their lives. The spirit of this group was raw and genuine. Their authenticity melted away pretense, and broke down walls. We sat as sisters barefoot on the floor, and talked. Sharing stories of humiliation, rape, life on the streets, abuse, prison, addiction and much more; realizing that our wounds are shared by women around the world. Realizing that together we can heal, day by day. Reminding each other that we don’t have to have it together all the time. We cried together. We laughed at each other. Together, we rolled beads from paper, messed up necklaces, melted beeswax, started electrical fires, poured candles, mixed soap, dug in the dirt, prayed, and praised God for His grace.

This is beginning of something and the air is thick with anticipation. We are low on funds and materials are scarce – but we have finally produced the first of 3 products that hold our dreams within each. That may sound silly – I know when most people are shopping for candles or soap or jewelry they aren’t thinking of the dreams their purchases represent. Yet for us, these simple items hold the very livelihood of 42 women and their children. We’ve got candles that smell like honey and coffee, soap that smells like fresh cut flowers and clean laundry mixed together, and beautiful jewelry that is original and unique – all hand made. The smells from this week will remain with me. Varnish-beeswax-roasted coffee-charcoal-fresh flowers-rain-mud-geranium-sweat- and the strong aroma of hope. These smells represent unity and community. They represent hurting women in America becoming a family with hurting women in Rwanda. They represent healing…healing together. They represent dreams becoming a reality.

Shine Brightly: KEZA Stories

My name is KEZA* and I am 25 years old. I was born in southern Rwanda, where I lived with my family until I was 13. I spent those early years growing up with eleven brothers and sisters and we loved each other very much. We were each other’s closest friends, playmates and teachers. When I was young I had big dreams for my life. I wanted to become an educated business owner. Even though school was difficult for me, I really enjoyed learning and was driven by my dreams to succeed.

But life was hard...my father was abusive, often coming home drunk and beating my mother. Mother was a strong woman, and in the end courageously left my father in order to protect herself and her children. My father refused to support us, and so my mother was left to support 12 children on her own. I remained in school for two years after their separation, but had to stop at age 12 because my mother could no longer afford to pay my school fees. I was so sad that I couldn’t continue going to school, it was as if my hopes and dreams were slipping through my fingers, becoming impossible to hold.

I worked at home for a little while, helping around the house. But I was becoming a burden to my Mother. At 13 I left to go and live with my eldest sister in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda. She was working and my family believed she could take better care of me. I was happy to be there with her, she was someone I admired and loved. Sadly I was soon seen as a burden to her as well, and after only one year, I left. Since then I’ve been moving from one home to another.

Later that year the genocide began. I am from the targeted tribe and was forced to flee to a local stadium and hide. It was there I was told that my family members had been murdered, including my oldest sister. I couldn’t understand how something like this could happen.

The loss of my family weighed heavily, but I tried my best not to lose all hope and I hung on as best I could to my slippery hopes and dreams. After the genocide I lived with friends I had met during our period of hiding at the stadium, and found work where I could.

I was 15 years old when I was betrayed by a friend and raped for the first time. Sadly, this kind of thing is a common occurrence. His status in society meant that there was nothing I could do, no one I could tell. Two months later I was raped a second time. I became angry, bitter, and scared, never escaping the memories of what had been done to me.

I folded into my own solitude, feeling it was the only safe place.

With little hope and fewer opportunities I was forced to sell my body on the streets. I knew of no other way to survive. I had become one of the forgotten in Rwanda.

When I was approached by Pastor Joseph, I trusted no one. Everyone in my life had let me down. Yet this man seemed different and I held onto the glimmer of hope he offered. Two years later I am still holding onto to that hope and I am no longer working as a prostitute. Pastor Joseph started Sisters of Rwanda with Jared in order to help us. We didn’t know why they wanted to help us, or if they really would. But Pastor is different, he really does want to help us have a better life. Sisters of Rwanda is teaching me skills that will free me of the life I was stuck in and give me new opportunities. I now understand only God can profoundly change a person. I believe it is necessary for the Church to reach out to these women, teaching them about God and encouraging them, but it doesn’t stop there. Our spiritual needs are crucial, but we also need to survive, we need opportunities to learn and make money without selling our bodies. We are all chasing the best life possible and in order to achieve that each and every one of us requires money. No-one is an exception to this rule. I plead with the world to understand the plight of these women of which I used to be one.

Finally it seems that my dreams aren’t so slippery. I dream of having a good life with my children. I dream of being able to live without having to beg or sell my body on the streets. I dream my children will stay in school and have a much better life than I did. I dream they will grow up feeling happy. I do not know where the future will lead us, but I will hold onto these dreams I have.

*To protect the identities of the women we serve, the names of our beneficiaries have been changed to KEZA, which means beautiful.