With one month until Valentine's Day, it's time to start thinking ahead for unique gifts for that special someone (or to start making a gift list to help out your special someone).
As Valentines is a day to celebrate love, we want to help you find gifts that spread love and respect with each purchase.
Read below to learn more about the impact of some of our favorite jewelry brands:
The Starfish Project
The Starfish project began in 2006 when founder Jenny was living in an undisclosed city in Asia and began reaching out to women in the red light district. She quickly learned that many of these young women had been sold into trafficking by family members and were suffering deep emotional pain (among other things).
Jenny and her team began working to set up employment and care for women who were brave enough to escape the only life they had come to know. In 2006, Starfish brought its first 5 women into a safe new life.
By 2011, Starfish "had established the only safe house and training facility for women escaping exploitation in our city in Asia. As we continued to grow, we saw the potential for women on our production line to develop careers in fields like photography and accounting. We had the incredible privilege to encourage and equip our friends with skills that could take them far beyond Starfish Project. It’s a privilege to work alongside each woman, not only to make jewelry, but also to dream of a future for her and her family."
WorldFinds
WorldFinds was first dreamed up in 1999 when founder Kelly and her husband David took a 14-month backpacking trip around the globe and first learned about Fair Trade. Kelly "dreamed of creating a business that existed to do good, that was based on partnership, collaboration, great design, kindness and respect for humans and the environment.
Today WorldFinds works with over 700 (mostly female) artisans providing safe working conditions, fair wages, and space for creativity and innovation. For example, WorldFinds staple kantha jewelry collection was born when artisans in India "were looking for ways to repurpose fabric scraps left over from bags and accessories they had created using traditional Kantha quilts. They then [approached] a local furniture factory to collect wood scraps to carve into beads, which they then covered with Kantha fabric."
In addition to empowering artisans, WorldFinds kantha jewelry also provides funding for The Girls Education Fund which ensures that the daughters of their artisans have educational opportunities and brighter futures.
Fair Anita
Fair Anita was founded by Joy Mcbriend in 2015 after spending time building a women's shelter and impacting lives in Peru. While in Peru, Joy met a wonderful woman named Anita who worked daily to give women in her country agency and strength. At the time (2009), Peru had the highest rate of domestic violence incidents in the world. Joy wanted to change that.
"In 2015, few people were talking about violence against women, and we knew we wanted to be a resource for survivors, both the silenced and outspoken. We learned that financial insecurity is the #1 reason why women stay in abusive partnerships, so we started Fair Anita."
Today Fair Anita partners with women artisans in Peru and other developing countries to empower women by giving them financial stability, positive working communities, and the ability to take control of their own futures.
