Basket of Strength
The Basket of Strength is Currently Out of Stock The Darfur Baskets of Strength are traditional baskets with their woven lids or bartals and are offered as prized gifts – containing sweets and grains – during village festivals and weddings in Darfur. Each basket is masterfully crafted by a weaver in a Women’s Center in Kassab Camp, Western Darfur and comes in a rich palette of desert brown, butternut orange, cream and deep maroon colors.
Dimensions: The Darfur Basket of Strength is a small basket and measures 8″ across and 5″ inches deep – it is a perfect decorative accessory. A Story Card is included with your purchase.
The Story
The sprawling Kalma and Kassab camps are home to an estimated 150,000 refugees. Here, amidst the makeshift structures built from adobe brick and plastic sheeting you will find women’s weaving centers where about fifty women gather together to share their personal stories, exchange information and weave these colorful traditional baskets as part of their healing.
All have hastily fled from their burning villages with their families, leaving behind all of their possessions. Many have lived at the camp for almost four years with few dreams of returning home and rebuilding their lives.
By responding to the demand for these baskets from customers in the United States, the women now have an opportunity to earn a steady and dignified livelihood – what we call a “prosperity wage”, earning 30% more than they would weaving these baskets for the local markets. They feel valued, appreciated and visible!
The women also have the assurance that they can earn a livelihood without venturing outside the camps to fetch firewood which they then try to sell. It has often been during these early dawn expeditions into the desert that the women are attacked and raped by the “janjaweed” militia.
The Darfur Basket of Strength initiative is highly complex and requires that the baskets are transported from the camps to the nearest airport – El Fasher – about 5 hours drive along the grueling desert roads from the camps. From there, they are put on a prop plane and flown to Khartoum Airport where they are carefully inspected and then put on an Emirates Sky Cargo commercial flight to Hartford Airport, Connecticut from where a UPS truck then transports the baskets to our warehouse in Central Massachusetts.
We are able to bring you these precious baskets as a result of our collaboration with our non-profit partner, Darfur Peace and Development Organization, which has field operations in the camps.
I bought one of these baskets, and I have to say, it is even more beautiful than I had expected. The pictures on the website do not do them justice. The colors are much richer and more beautiful that what is pictured. I gave the basket to my mother for her 75th birthday, and told her the story of where it had come from, and she cried she was so moved and happy. I was too! The women in the camps in Darfur – well, I just can’t imagine what that is like. I just want to say, thank you for making these beautiful baskets. I hope you can make enough money to have more of what you need in that terrible situation. My heart breaks when I think about it.
please let me know when these are back in stock. Thanks
Thank you Stacy for your supportive feedback. The vision of your 75 year old mother holding the basket in her hand and sensing the deeper spirit of beauty, resilience and courage woven into it – is beautiful. The women in Darfur are so happy about this growing enterprise and are amazed that audiences in the United States are so responsive to them. They have been known to dance in the camps, chanting ” we are not refugees, we are not weavers, we are artists!”. This entire initiaitive is a testament to the power of enterprise as a healer.
Dan, we will let you know when the baskets are in stock. The baskets are on their way from Sudan – a grueling journey across the desert and then a transatlantic flight from Khartoum to us. Thank you for your support.
I just got the beautiful basket that I bought and I am so moved to have one of these in my hands, i can’t stop touching it!! i can feel the energy that was put into making these baskets…. i will treasure it forever.
Claudia
please let me know when available…Thank you
Please contact me when these baskets are back in stock. Thanks
Can you please tell me what the baskets are woven from? Are they sisal, or another material? The question came up at my Dining For Women dinner last night, and I could not find an answer on the website. Thank you.