The Women’s Peace Collection is proud to unveil its newest product, the Humanity Bracelet, an elegant fluorite design made by women artisans in Afghanistan. The bracelet is our signature icon supporting Women for Women International’s “Join Me on the Bridge” campaign, a global women’s movement demonstrating that women are the cornerstones of bridges of peace and development in the future. On March 8, 2010 – International Women’s Day – hundreds of women around the world will gather on bridges in a show of solidarity. The Humanity Bracelet symbolizes the hard work and devotion that Afghan women have invested in self-sustenance and peace for their families and communities.

“Join Me on the Bridge” Campaign

With the anniversary of International Women’s Day and the tenth anniversary of the UN Millennium Development Goals in 2010, we are given pause to reflect on the tremendous work left to be done in order to eradicate poverty and achieve equality for all the world’s citizens. Seventy percent of the world’s poor are women and 75 percent of the civilians killed in war are women and children.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, site of over 5 million deaths and hundreds of thousands of rapes in a conflict spanning more than a decade, women are imagining peace. They say peace means being able to live and to work freely. They see peace as walking to the fields without fear of rape; they envision a more prosperous future, harvesting from the fields the fruits of their own labor. Yet war wages on.

To honor the resilience of these and the millions of other women survivors of war around the world, Women for Women International is hosting a global campaign – Join Me on the Bridge – which will unite women all over the world in a global women’s movement showing that women can build the bridges of peace and development for the future. On March 8, 2010, thousands of women will stand together in Congo and neighboring Rwanda to demand peace and development. Supporting them in their call for the war’s end will be thousands of women from Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Sudan, Nigeria, as well as in the United States and the United Kingdom, to say no to war and yes to peace and hope.

“The goal is to unite women on International Women’s Day and call for an end to war,” said Meghan Taylor, Institutional Advancement Officer for Women for Women International. “It is women that, more often than not, are leading the path toward peace.”

The signature location, the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, will draw over a hundred women as well as politicians from both countries to create a human chain across the border. The Millennium Bridge in London, the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, and other grassroots locations across the world will also serve as sites of unity.

Your purchase of this fluorite bracelet from the Women’s Peace Collection allows Women for Women International to provide hope and empowerment to women in Afghanistan, and throughout conflict-ridden regions, as they work for peace in their countries. It has been carefully handcrafted by program graduates and is a culmination of their experience of moving from victim to survivor to self-sufficient artisan. By purchasing the Humanity Bracelet, you are making a direct investment in resilient women – and helping them to rebuild their lives, families and communities.

Women for Women International helps women in war-torn regions rebuild their lives by giving them financial and emotional support, job skills training, rights education, access to capital, and assistance for small business development. Through Women for Women International, women are trained in a variety of skills that complement their talents and provide them with economic opportunities.

The story behind the Humanity Bracelet

Made of translucent fluorite stones in luminous shades of azure, rose, and violet, the Women’s Peace Collection’s Humanity Bracelet is entirely the handmade creation of Afghan women in Kabul. These young heads of household learn the craft of jewelry-carving in Women for Women International’s Afghanistan program, a multi-region effort which has worked with 20,000 women since its inception in October 2002.

Although jewelry-making is not a “traditional” craft in the region, the fluorite the women use is mined in Afghanistan. The artisan carvers purchase large blocks of fluorite in local markets and use a set of machines to shape and polish the mineral into the beautiful stones that comprise the Humanity Bracelet. The women are able to purchase the machines, which total at around $500 American dollars, by taking out microloans through Women for Women International’s microcredit lending program.

Particularly in Afghanistan, it is challenging for a woman even to be able to leave her home; most need permission from their families before enrolling in the program, according to Laura Kaplan, Economic Development Coordinator for Women for Women International. However, families become supportive of the women’s continued involvement when they see the amount of income that the program helps them generate. Neighboring families that witness the success of the artisans then want their wives and daughters involved in the craft, as well.

“There’s definitely some hesitance at first,” Kaplan said, “but to be able to bring in money brings power to our women, and that’s the goal of the program.”

To learn more about how you can get involved and support women survivors of war, visit www.womenforwomen.org.