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PROVINCETOWN GUIDE
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| DIRECTORY |
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Provincetown :: Wednesday, March 17th 2010
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Do Good and Feel Gorgeous
With Sarah's Hope
By Amy DuFault of Provincetown Magazine
June 25th, 2009
Increasingly, shoppers are looking to get the most out of what they buy, be it the long life of a product or the cause it supports.
| I honestly felt, that if I didn’t find a way to fund women in the developing world with microloans, to try and make a difference, I wouldn’t be living my life as it was intended,” says Smith. |
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In the case of Sarah Smith’s jewelry line Sarah’s Hope® (available at William & Kenneth Fine Jewelry, 230 Commercial St., Provincetown), the rewards are two-fold – a purchase that’s well designed and attractive, and that also gives back to women in the form of microloans.
“There are some things in life you will feel strongly about and others that are not so clear, but I honestly felt, that if I didn’t find a way to fund women in the developing world with microloans, to try and make a difference, I wouldn’t be living my life as it was intended,” says Smith.
Her vision has proved fruitful and now pays forward a minimum of 10% of all net profits (often more than this) from Sarah’s Hope® Jewelry to fund microloans for women entrepreneurs ranging in increments of $50-$1,250. Thanks to a successful partnership with MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Associates), these loans are possible in many countries.
While that amount may not seem substantial to small business owners in the U.S., it’s a life altering amount for women who receive it elsewhere.
Take Elia Rose, a microloan recipient and tortilla maker in Managua who was one of the poorest urban clients to receive a loan.
Providing her with a $250 loan so she could buy flour wholesale and increase her tortilla making, she was able to add $2 a day to her family’s income (side note: $2 a day is the national average wage in Nicaragua).
In addition to her husband’s wages, this enabled her to send her four children to school. Elia’s dream? She hopes to one day see her children attend a university.
A collection eponymously named after Elia Rose features necklaces and earrings in the shape of small tortillas, gilded with E’Sperene® (a metal oxide and quartz crystal stone), resulting in a dynamic color process. The multi-dimensional stone was named by Sarah’s Hope® to reflect the life changes each woman goes through before and after her loan.
Smith says stories like Elia’s inspire her to continue and make all the work entailed in being a truly responsible business, worth it.
“We want to be a benefit to these women and even the manufacturers working for us making the jewelry and we do this through honesty and integrity,” says Smith adding that her work with any company she employs is guided by Fair Trade.
While the concept of Fair Trade is new to some, its strategic intent is to work with marginalized producers and workers to help them move towards economic self-sufficiency and stability. It also aims to allow them to become greater stakeholders in their own organizations as well as play a wider role in international trade.
“To ensure that microloan recipients take responsibility, solidarity groups are formed. When it comes time to pay back the loans, each person has to repay her loan plus interest and if everyone in the group doesn’t make their whole repayment, no one in the group can get a new loan,” she says adding that it’s a form of social pressure that ensures she gets repaid and that the woman finds gratification in knowing she owes nothing.
“Most people think poor people aren’t bankable, so the only source the poor have are loan sharks who charge at least 40% interest a month. Because our interest rate is so incredibly low and we form solidarity groups, our loan payback rate is 97-98% paid back every year,” Smith says proudly, adding that that’s how serious the loans are taken by the women she helps to fund.
Smith is also happy with how her retailers have reacted to her line.
Kenneth Ouellette, co-owner of William & Kenneth Fine Jewelry in Provincetown sells Sarah’s Hope® Jewelry and has noticed a few things about the line.
“Women like it and gravitate towards it because it’s beautiful. Then they hear the story behind it and they like the fact they can buy something of beauty that also does something to help another person somewhere,” says Ouellette. “And in this economy, people still do want to buy pretty things, but they really want it to be special. Sarah’s line lets them have both.”
Sarah’s Hope® Jewelry is available at William & Kenneth Fine Jewelry, located at 230 Commercial Street, Provincetown.
For more information, call 508.487.GOLD (4653) or visit www.williamandkenneth.com. Also visit Provincetownmagazine.net for more articles.
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