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Through years of advocating for those who share her HIV-positive status, Mary Fisher became convinced: "Women who share poverty and AIDS can be empowered only by employment." Now when she travels the world -- as artist, author and ambassador of the United Nations' HIV/AIDS program -– Mary focuses especially on income-generation projects that help AIDS-affected women earn a living, care for their families and sustain their health.
Her latest effort, The ABATAKA Collection, links women worldwide to their African sisters in a partnership of art, work and hope.
Named for an African term that means "family, community, belonging," The ABATAKA Collection is an online gallery of intricately-crafted bracelets, individually signed by their creators. Designed by Mary and fashioned from distinctive horn, bone and gemstone beads, each bracelet is unique -- lovingly hand-crocheted by African women who receive all the profits from bracelet sales.
Mary frequently visits Zambia -- where one in six adults is HIV-positive -- to teach women to make bracelets. Some of the women come from support groups at the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ), a Lusaka-based HIV/AIDS research, treatment and care facility supported by the philanthropy Mary founded, the Mary Fisher CARE (Clinical AIDS Research and Education) Fund. Others are from the Chikumbuso community, where AIDS widows and orphans share what little they have to keep the young ones fed and in school.
So far, more than 150 women have been trained to make nearly three dozen varieties of bracelets, from the earthy tones of bone and horn to the sky-blues of chalcedony and jungle-greens of jasper and jade. On any given day, several dozen artisans may gather wherever they can find work space: in a church hall, or a clinic compound. They share life stories and voice their gratitude for the bracelet project income -- a life-changing gift, in a nation where joblessness is rampant and many people survive on barely a dollar a day.
Among the artisans, Esther's story is typical. She contracted HIV from her husband, passed it unknowingly to four of their five children and, since her husband's death in 2005, is raising her family alone. Before, Esther and her children often skipped doses of HIV medications, because they had no food to take them with. Now, they have money for housing, for food -– and even for books and fees, to keep the children in school. "I am very grateful to God for the beading project so I can give my children education," Esther says. "It is the most important thing."
When Esther finishes a bracelet -– carnelian beads the golds and oranges of a savannah sunset -– she carefully signs her name to an ABATAKA Collection tag that marks the bracelet as her handiwork. The bracelet makers feel so proud, they say, that women in far-off lands will wear and admire their creations. And many smile through tears when Mary tells them, again and again, what she hears from those who buy the bracelets:
"I tell them, 'You have admirers -– sisters! -- all over the world. They are buying these bracelets because what you make is so beautiful, little works of art drawn from the soil and soul of Africa. But it's more than that. They are buying them because they care about fighting AIDS in Africa and they want to help you. They buy to say they care. They buy to say, You matter. They buy to say, Be strong!'"
Fresh from a Lusaka trip to teach new designs and bring back new bracelets, Mary has high hopes for the project. With their new earnings and skills, she says, women artisans aren't just living day to day, but looking to the future: opening savings accounts, starting their own small businesses, getting their families better housing. The potential is so great, she says: "I hope that 10 years from now, or 20, if I am still alive, I will still be designing jewelry -– and still seeing it produced by my business-partner-sisters."
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