Etc., one of the premiere jewelry and accessory stores in the Southeast, hosted a trunk show for our purses and other Gitarama products last night!  What an amazing event it was!  Meg, Karen and all the other fabulous ladies at Etc. did an incredible job planning and publicizing the event.  I couldn’t believe how many people came and how enthusiastic everyone was about the purses!   We sold an incredible number of purses and I have an inbox full of orders for more!

Many many thanks to Meg Thompson Margjeka and Etc. for their incredible support this year and for making our trunk show such an overwhelming success!  As many of you know, Etc. returns all of the proceeds on purchases of the purses directly to our company so we can maximize the amount available to help these wonderful artisans in Rwanda!  If you haven’t already, check out Etc.’s new space, on the curve in Mountain Brook Village, just down the way from Starbucks!

Etc. is carrying the purses in the store – be sure to check out Meg’s window display and drop in to find many other fun things Meg has in the store.

Thanks again to Etc. and to Meg Thompson Margjeka!

Jenny McCain

Came home to 4 large boxes on my doorstep, each filled with new purses ready to find homes.  It’s so exciting to see them lined up on my kitchen table waiting for their owners to pick them up.   We’re still filling orders from the waiting list, but hope to have more purses soon for the stores.  

Etc. in Mountain Brook Village (Birmingham, AL) is carrying them as is the cutest store in Austin, Texas – Touch of Sass.   We’re waiting for more to arrive before we add stores to our list…but keep checking back to hear where you can find them. 

You can check out the “Our Story” page  about how this came to be…but for now I can tell you we’ve only been able to start this business because international relief agency Food for the Hungry has two staff members, Christi Whitekettle and Tom McGregor, who live Rwanda.

My sister works for FH. We started working with Tom and Christi late last summer to standardize the shape of the purses, choose the weave designs, find coordinating fabric that would be appealing to US customers, etc. For example, to standardize our product size, we had patterns made of the purse shape our friends and colleagues seemed to like the best so Tom and Christy could distribute them to the artisans. So far we have received 8 completed purses, with more on the way.

These first 8 purses were made by Narcisse and his sister Primitive. Narcisse is 23 years old, the fourth of five children. Their parents have both died- their father of illness in 1998 and their mother in an auto accident in 2000. After their parents’ death, the children were looked after by their oldest sister. Currently, Narcisse and Primitive live with one other sister, her child, and her husband, who is not often there.  With the money he has earned so far, Narcisse has bought health insurance, bought a field for farming, and has begun building his own house. The establishment of this home is very important to him, as culturally it must be built before he can get married.  In the future, Narcisse hopes to complete his own home, marry, and purchase a cow.

I could tell you more about Narcisse, but I think this excerpt from Christy’s email gives you a better picture…

“Tom (McGregor) has been working with Narcisse for the past year, but I remember the first week that I met him- just as we were beginning the handbag project. He had come to drop off a different delivery after a long delay. As I shook his hand, I could feel and see that he was running a fever and struggling with illness. He had not seen a doctor or gotten medication because of lack of funds. Since that time, largely because of the purse project, we have seen Narcisse on a regular basis. His wellness has visibly improved. He and his sister are still very quiet and humble, but looking well, and showing increasing energy and enthusiasm.

A few weeks ago, Narcisse and Primitive were in the office making their weekly delivery of handbags. As we were bringing the meeting to a close, the siblings turned to us, their faces beaming. They thanked us profusely for our help in purchasing their work. They told us that they had lost their parents as children, but had found parents in us due to our consistent support of their work. They were overjoyed at being able to use their added income to improve their home and their lives. We were able to affirm to them that it was indeed they who were doing wonderful work and making a way for themselves, and that it is our pleasure to be able to connect them with a market.”