Featured Village Store items
Hope Bolivia Scarves
WHRI alumni Terry & Kathy Waller
Though among the world’s poorest, many children in the rural village of San Juan Julian, Bolivia, play and laugh while their sisters, mothers and grandmothers handpaint colorful scarves. The group of over 36 women was organized by the Waller family in an effort to help meet basic needs by providing a means of generating income for these families who have so little. Their beautiful and primitive handwork is truly a work of the heart as they share their faith as well as their dreams for a better life for themselves and their families through this project of Hope.
Averaging a 3rd-grade education – some cannot write their names – yet they faithfully practice until they can create these beautiful scarves. Some are widows, some are single mothers and some are wives of husbands who are not able to work. Many live in one-room thatched houses with dirt floors and haul water from a more fortunate person’s house. With your help, they will better their lives with a great deal of dignity, as they are joyfully creating something beautiful and unique.
Soap & Honey from Asia
WHRI alumni Charlie & Brooke Ramsey
Working within a local community to develop free-trade products to be distributed globally, the Ramseys report that the soap and honey produced by the women in a cluster of villages has been successfully marketed and exported. The current focus of the company, Village Artisan, is on extracting essential oils from herbs like lavender for products that require fragrances and special scents.
Village Artisan was created out of the realization of what 
Westerners could contribute to the already gifted but struggling communities of Asia. Through developing innovative designs, raising the standard of quality, linking local artisans with the global marketplace, and advocating for sustainable development, a whole new paradigm has come to multinational business: a company with a conscience. Artisans from several villages now have the finances for education and better health for their families. Women are also empowered through dignified work and participation in decisions. Since the conception of Village Artisan, the result has been the transformation of not only the individual lives of previously impoverished women and children, but entire communities.
