S.A.L.V.E. International has developed a range of fairly traded crafts, jewellery and recycled paper greetings cards as part of its community outreach projects aimed at empowering impoverished communities in Eastern Uganda. The majority of the profits from these products go directly to the individuals who have made them, with the rest donated to furthering S.A.L.V.E.’s support to children living on the streets in the Jinja district.

We established and supported two co-operative groups of women who lovingly hand-craft the cards and jewellery from recycled paper and fruit-seed beads coloured with local dyes for sale in Uganda and the UK. Since joining the project each women’s household income has increased by at least a third; a substantial development that S.A.L.V.E. has helped to strengthen through teaching business, numeracy and literacy skills. After 3 years of intense support, the groups have now graduated so that they are able to maintain these and like-minded business initiatives independently.

We choose communities and participants where there are high rates of poverty and low employment opportunities, which can often lead to children leading on the streets. By empowering some of the poorest members of the local communities we want to reduce the number of children who are forced to run to the streets in the first place.

Click on the pictures below to learn more about the women in each group.

Making jewellery in Mafubira

Making recycled paper and soft animals in Kakira