The SisterScarf Fund

The Messy Art of Saving the World

2012-01-16T17:31:00.001-08:00

"Too often, projects like these are born and developed by corporations, foundations, governments, and other institutions without a day-to-day understanding of the lives of the people they're meant to help. There's no shortage of good intentions, hard work, and committed individuals. Where the field of development falls short, however, is in process."

A great post by Panthea Lee on three things every designer should know about international development

The Rush is Past

2011-12-26T19:44:00.000-08:00

The rush to get everything out in time for the holiday is over. We've folded up our craft fair tables for the season, and toasted the holiday all around. Thank you to everyone who volunteered to help us, and to everyone who bought scarves and bags to help fund our micro-grants for the coming year!
Unfortunately, the need for micro-grant funding never stops. Seasonal rushes do not apply. These people always need our help. So, just a reminder: We do sell our products all year round, so don't feel shy about contacting us if you need a scarf or bag for Aunt Matilda's February birthday. Just email and we'll tell you what we have in stock. And thank you again for supporting The SisterScarf Fund.

Holiday Colors

2011-12-20T14:29:00.000-08:00

Who knew red and green could look so great? We love our volunteer models! And we're still selling those last minute gifts, so if you need a quick something for the nice person next door, drop us an email.

SisterSwan

2011-12-12T11:54:00.000-08:00

Handmade by Bainbridge Island fiber artist Margret Darrah, our charming SisterSwan ornament honors SWAN, the Shan Women's Action Network, one of The SisterScarf Fund's micro-grant recipients. All handmade in wool felt, she sports her jaunty SisterScarf against cool in-flight breezes. We have only 2 left of these handmade ornaments, all wearing different colored SisterScarves. She is $19.50.

For more information on SWAN, go to http://www.shanwomen.org

Origami Bag colors this season

2011-11-20T14:11:00.000-08:00

Because SisterScarf friend Lyn put up information about us on the VCFA site, we've been fielding requests for bag colors left and right over here! Here's what we have in bags at this moment.

In small (14 inches across when flat) we have:
Bauhaus red; shantung or parallel stitched dupioni
Bauhaus black: shantung
Rossetti mauve (warp bronze/weft lavender): parallel stitched dupioni
Rossetti teal (warp light green/weft peacock blue): dupioni

In medium (16" across when flat) we have:
Bauhaus black: shantung
Bright Turquoise: shantung
Bright Coral: shantung
Rossetti sage (warp grey-green/weft black):dupioni
Rossetti russet: parallel stitched dupioni
Rossetti lavender smoke: parallel stitched dupioni
Rossetti English lavender: parallel stitched dupioni
Rossetti evening blue: parallel stitched dupioni (pictured)

The picture shows what we mean by parallel stitching. Email us for more information or to place an order, using the address on the contact page.

Think Twice

2011-11-12T15:12:00.001-08:00

We know you're buying those last-moment presents, but does Aunt Sue really want that electric hot-dog warmer? These days, we like to give holiday presents we can feel good about-- gifts that don't waste resources and won't end their days in landfill. SisterScarf will have a booth at the Ethical Trunk Show at Bainbridge Commons (across from Waterfront Park) from 11-4 Saturday, Nov. 26. Get a jump on holiday gift-giving that makes sense! Drop by and visit with our intrepid volunteers, find out about SisterScarf's current microgrant recipients, and pick up a few silk scarves and origami bags, the profit on which all goes to refugee-relief. What better way to cross Aunt Sue off your gift-giving list!

25 Ways to Wear It

2011-11-09T14:15:00.000-08:00

Stuck in a double-loop rut? Dee sent us this link to a great video that will multiply your scarf-wearing options.

Here are 25 ways to wear a scarf.

The Origami Bag

2011-11-09T13:47:00.000-08:00

Our lovely, lined silk bag comes in lots of colors and textures, mostly dependent on what Natalia likes at the moment she whips out the Pantone book and specifies them. RIght now we have two distinct color ways: Bauhaus red, bright blue or black in silk shantung and seamed silk dupioni . And Rossetti blue, green and lavender dupioni, featuring one color carried in the warp and another in the weft. (not shown)

The origami bag packs totally flat for travel. Intrepid travelers we know keep one in each suitcase, then wear it layered between sweater and jacket for pickpocket- proof ease. And yes-- our bags are made by seamstress friends of ours working from home in Thailand. We pay a living wage. No children or low-wage factories involved.

Small $20/ Med $30/ Large $40. Available at parties or email us and we'll tell you what colors we have that day. 100% of profit goes to refugee relief.

Pictured: Bauhaus Large, Medium and Small -- the large is silk shantung, the medium and small are seamed silk dupioni.

The SisterScarf

2011-11-08T19:39:00.000-08:00

The classic SisterScarf, a simple, etherial, light silk oblong, shown here, is always available from us in at least fifty colors. They are so light and pack so flat that they make the perfect lightweight sendable gift. Come to a party or email us for current available colors.

1 for $14.
2 for $25.

Ready or Not, Here it comes!

2011-11-08T19:33:00.000-08:00

Start Your Engines! It's holiday time.

We'll be holding SisterScarf parties around the community in November. Just keep watching this blog for a scarf-buying opportunity near you. Come by the most convenient party for a nice cup of tea, an Origami bag or two and a few colorful scarves for holiday gift-giving. Email us for party addresses.

If you live, say, in Zurich, and can't hop a flight to Bainbridge Island for

these parties, we would love to send you a list of this year's scarf colors, pictures of our new products and an order form, so that you can choose a few items for friends and relations. Just email us with "send me the info" in the subject line, and we'll send it all to you.

This year, we'll again be offering our signature "origami" silk bag, which has developed a devoted following, particularly among intrepid travelers. It packs completely flat.

We'll also be offering the double silk scarf called the "offset scarf," which is basically two scarves sewn together but "offset," and which gives the impression of wearing two separate scarves without the slippage of actually wearing two separate scarves. A slippage issue only a true scarf-wearer understands.

If you would like to host a Sisterscarf party, just email, and we'll send you the information on how that process works and schedule your party in. Our volunteers say it's a wonderful way to help SisterScarf and also see friends they rarely get to see during the busy holiday season.

Hope to see you there!

Natalia

Recent SisterScarf Micro-grants

2011-11-08T19:30:00.001-08:00

The SisterScarf Fund, a program of WorldAid, Inc. here in Seattle, depends on volunteers and "scarf-buyers" to make our microgrants possible. Our micro-grantees are undocumented and stateless people taking refuge on the Thai-Burmese border who do not have the "track record" to qualify for the large, institutional grants made by big foundations. We help people build that track record by giving them the opportunity to apply for grants, create financial and programmatic plans, receive funds and track outcomes. Here are some of the organizations to which SisterScarf has made grants recently:

New Life HIV-AIDS Outreach along the Thai-Burma Border

New Life began in 2004, and was created to address the needs of the increasing number of people living with HIV/AIDS along the northern Thai-Burma border. These people have limited access to basic health care and employment because they have no legal status. New Life is an organization of people who are HIV positive and willing to share their knowledge and energy to provide HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support for other people infected and affected by the epidemic. The New Life team also provides information about family planning, basic health care, malaria, dengue fever, human rights and human trafficking to the migrant community.

SisterScarf provided the New Life team with donated computer equipment and funds to purchase a printer.

Sweet Home Orphanage

Mary, who runs Sweet Home Orphanage, provides a safe home and learning environment for 17 orphans-- 7 boys and 10 girls-- who have all lost their parents to death or imprisonment. (Many hill tribe people are easily persuaded to bring drugs into Thailand and when arrested are sentenced to long prison terms or to death.) The children at Sweet Home Orphanage have no family members to look after them. Sweet Home Orphanage not only gives these children a home, but negotiates their legal status and gives them access to education and health services. In addition, the director of the orphanage teaches English to all the children in the village, orphaned or not, on weekday mornings before school and provides them vocational training in weaving, farming, cooking and sewing on the weekends.

SisterScarf made two separate donations to Sweet Home Orphanage: funds for clothes and funds to build on an addition to house the children.

Thai-Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB)

TACDB organizes communities in Thailand and communities from Burma, living in Thailand, to address humanitarian needs and human rights abuses faced by the people of Burma. When the Cyclone Nargis hit the southern coast of Burma in May 2008. TACDB received nearly two full (shipping)containers of food and clothing for victims, who were considered inaccessible by governmental organizations. Working through a network of monasteries in Burma, TACDB got these donations to the cyclone victims. SisterScarf provided funding to cover the transportation costs.

See their website for more information: www.tacdbburmese.org

Thirst Aid

Thirst Aid provides safe drinking water to communities that can't afford expensive filtration systems. The organization also teaches strategies for education, social marketing and the introduction of applicable technology. When cyclone Nargas hit, Thirst Aid had already been working to introduce the technology for ceramic water filters to village potters in Burma’s Delta area. For this reason, it was one of the first and most effective organizations to respond to this "no-clean-drinking-water" emergency. SisterScarf provided funds to Thirst Aid for the purchase of five bicycles to assist in the delivery of emergency assistance immediately after Cyclone Nargis hit.

http://www.thirst-aid.org/burma-kids-2.jpg

See their website for more information: www.thirst-aid.org

Hsa Htoo Lei High School Newspaper

BMWEC is an umbrella organization for 45 schools. Thirty-five of these schools for migrant children are in Thailand and 10 are in the IDP (Internally Displaced People) area inside Karen State. This network provides 6221 children with schooling, running programs from Pre-K to "post-ten".

When two high school students--one from Seattle--volunteered to work with high school students from the BMWEC schools to publish the school's first newspaper, SisterScarf provided funds to print it. This was a high point for the refugee kids, creating a space for personal expression and identity-building. The school paper continues online today.

Grassroots Human Rights, Education and Development - GHRE

GHRE works with Burmese migrant workers in southern Thailand to provide education to the children of Burmese migrant workers in the Takua Pa District of Phang Nga Province. The organization promotes job opportunities and fosters a safe and lawful environment for Burmese migrant workers, and has a mandate to bridge Thai and Burmese communities. When Royhinga refugees from the Burma-Bangladesh border fled by fishing boats to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, many thousands of people began dying at sea. As survivors came to shore, GHRE was called upon by the various governments involved and by the United Nations to interview and mediate with the survivors. SisterScarf provided an emergency fund for food, medicines and clothing the GHRE workers took with them as they met with the survivors.

See their website for more information: www.ghre.org

Ranong Fishing Pier

In the very southern-most point of the Thai-Burma border, tens of thousands of displaced persons from Burma live in squalorous conditions, finding temporary work on fishing boats, in factories, in brothels and at nearby rubber plantations. Few organizations reach these people or this area, so local community volunteers have organized themselves to provide basic health and education services. These include:

1. A medical clinic that provides migrant-friendly health care services to impoverished Burmese migrant workers and their families. The clinic is a first stop for many Burmese migrant workers who do not get treatment or compensation for injuries sustained while working. A referral system has been negotiated with the Thai hospital for more serious health problems.

2. A library created on the ground floor of the clinic and next to the schools so that patients and students may find community and support while also finding access to reading materials.

3. An adult literacy project that provides "non-formal" education and gives women basic health information. Most of the women attending this school have had little or no formal education.

4. A night school that provides education to children living on the streets. The children often workduring the day and only have free time to learn in the evenings. Many do not have any family members in the area and are living in dire poverty.

SisterScarf has provided funds to each of these initiatives to cover them at times when their own donations do not cover the utilities and rent.

Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN)

SWAN is a network of women who work on a voluntary basis to provide education about health, women’s empowerment, crisis support and income-generating to the hundreds of thousands of Shan women who have been displaced by the civil war in Burma. SWAN documents the histories of refugee women from the Shan State, and has published a report entitled: License to Rape, which includes information on the extensive use of rape as a genocidic strategy by the Burmese military, available on the SWAN website). SisterScarf provided funds to SWAN to support their advocacy and distribution of this publication.

See their website for more information: www.shanwomen.org

Adolescent Reproductive Health Network (ARHN)

Through surveys and anecdotal evidence, ARHN knows refugees and IDPs living along the Thai-Burma border have limited access and knowledge about reproductive health. Two ARHN peer trainers will conduct a pilot training for 20-25 youth along the Thai-Burma border. This training will target a population that is not receiving basic services because of illegal status and are outside of the refugee camps. ARHN has been previously successful in providing trainings to migrants and cross-border populations inside Burma. Because of extensive budget cuts, ARHN has been unable to provide trainings along the border since 2008.

SisterScarf provided funds to ARHN for honorariums, food, and transportation for facilitators, materials and supplies, and food and transportation for attendees. From anecdotal evidence and surveys, This training will renew ARHN’s access to youth along the border not living in refugee camps and will determine the present level of knowledge of reproductive health among a small group of this population.

In addition, Sisterscarf supported ARHN to train 10-12 peer educators to build a website that supports their partner networks along the Thai-Burma border and reaches broader national and international audiences. This website will also reach Burmese youth not attending trainings, Burmese youth living in Thailand, Burma, and overseas. ARHN will post information about the network, its activities, and educational reproductive health information material.

Nay Chi Scholarships

Naychi Migrant Labor Union (NMLU) received a grant from SisterScarf to support eight excellent students through the 2009-2010 academic year. The children are currently in grades 3-6. These scholarship recipients are chosen by the community and are a means of building positive community relationships through collaboration and coordination between the migrant community and the Thai schools. The NMLU scholarships will provide school uniforms, supplies and transportation costs, and home visits to all 8 students at least once a month, to look at the current conditions of their situation and to have discussions about their education. NMLU has on-going discussions with the parents about securing the health and education of their children.

Accounting Training for BMWEC

The Burmese Migrant Worker Education Committee (BMWEC) has grown to coordinate the curriculum and funding for nearly 50 migrant schools along the northern Thai-Burma border. The growth of BMWEC has increased to over 30 donors and its growing budget has overwhelmed its financial reporting capacity. SisterScarf supported an accountant to work with BMWEC to set up a financial reporting system and work with the staff to implement this system.

See their website at: www.bmwec.org

Pattanarak - Savings Group project

Pattanarak is a Thai-based local community organization working with undocumented and stateless persons along the Thai-Burma border. In an attempt to break their constant cycle of poverty, Pattanarak has set up a cooperative savings group to create both opportunities to save and to secure “banking” options. Pattanarak’s success in organizing these savings groups in ten extremely poor communities and the ability of these savings groups to grow increasingly confident and stable makes this a very exciting program with room to grow. SisterScarf supported an American (Seattle-based) intern to work with Pattanarak to help document its efforts and success, and to assist it in replicating itself and gain donor support.

See website: www.pattanarak.org

So that's the long and short of it. If you see a project above to which you would like to donate directly, please contact us via this blog, or go to the "donate" page, follow the instructions, and write the name of the project in the "memo" line of your check. Donations made this way go directly from you to the project. If you'd like to find out more about SisterScarf and about what you can do as a volunteer, contact us. We are a totally volunteer program of WorldAid, Inc. We exist only because people like you give of themselves to help others. It is an amazing thing, really. So thank you.

Flooding in Bangkok

2011-11-07T11:11:00.000-08:00

For those of you not up on it, Thailand is having huge flooding right now. Sixty-percent of Bangkok is under water, and is likely to remain that way for some months. The airport and a small area containing the financial core of the city have been sandbagged, but the rest of Bangkok is devastated and will take years to recover once the waters subside.

The floods are a result of heavy Summer rains and the rise in sea-level due to global warming. Because the sea is higher, the water cannot drain, except for very brief periods of low tide. Although Bangkok is underwater, we have been able to get our scarves-- thanks to our amazing Thai contacts-- and now your purchases are more important than ever, since you are now helping support our wholesale Thai merchants in Bangkok, whose markets are flooded and closed, as well as our micro-grant recipients.

Barb is so on it!

2011-11-07T10:31:00.001-08:00

Here at SisterScarf it's holiday scarf-buying time again! New shipments are rolling in and Barb the Intrepid Volunteer Organizer is busy with scheduling craft fair booths and home parties. If you're interested in buying scarves to give as holiday gifts, email us and we'll let you know what colors we have in stock. If you're interested in hosting a SisterScarf party this season, just email me at this blog and Barb will track you down. SisterScarf is 100% volunteer and 100% of the profit from scarf sales goes to Burmese refugee relief. We fund our micro-grants through these scarf sales.

Please, no Prancing

2010-10-07T19:58:00.000-07:00

Just a short thought, but a crucial one. When you're thinking about funding a project for a community or group, it's a good idea to ask the group what it wants done. You wouldn't believe how many start-up NGOs forget this most important step. Would you want someone coming in and telling you what you need and how to live your life? Of course not. So don't assume you know what a community needs and go prancing in with a new water-filtration system or some other idea, when the community never told you it needed one, and has needs it deems far greater at the time. Don't reduce the people you want to help to the status of infants. You are not the Great White Hope. They know what they need.

It's so easy, in the rush of desiring to do good, to assume your way must be the better way, to act like an old-fashioned imperialist. Instead, I recommend you go in and ask the community what it needs, decide if that's something you want to fund, figure out a way to get the funding set up, and try your best not to meddle with that community's agenda for itself. It is harder, because it requires a certain subjugation of ego, but it works better.

Grants and Funders aren't the only way to go.

2010-09-27T15:40:00.000-07:00

When they think about creating a project for social change, people often assume that they need to court wealthy people or big institutions in order to get the capital they'll need to make their ideas happen. They worry that they'll need to employ a fundraiser and a development officer, and before even beginning their project they feel overwhelmed by the prospect. My advice: start smaller than that. Don't start looking for "angels" or funders yet. I recommend the "pay as you go" method.

We started SisterScarf in my dining room. We didn't have time to make things and sell them, nor did we want to be beholden to a funder who would be able to call the shots about what we did and how we grew. We wanted to give very small grants, and felt we didn't need a million-dollar backer in order to do that.

We realized that we could sell pre-made Thai scarves at a healthy profit and use 100% of the profit to fund micro-grants. We have since gone on to offer our signature silk "origami bag," a flat, packable modernist purse designed by us and made in Thailand by seamstresses we know, and an annual American-artisan-designed-and-made holiday ornament. We feel no need to offer new products, just new colors, and we make sure the colors we offer are right in line with current fashion trends.

We also host a biennial fundraising extravaganza called "The Old Settlers' Ball," which helps out our budget every two years. This evening does more than add to our bottom line. It is an opportunity to have fun with our volunteers and with all the people who have helped us by buying products from us in the last two years, which reinforces the SisterScarf community. It provides a festive atmosphere in which to tell people about the projects we're currently supporting, it allows us to support live music and strong families on our side of the ocean, and it makes sure every woman we know has at least one billowing ball-skirt in her closet.

With these two income streams, we have been able to fund our grants without worrying that a big funder is going to drop us or that an institution will change its mandate and leave us swinging. Yes, we have attracted the occasional "angel" donor. But we don't have to count on these angels to pay expenses.

Although SisterScarf has been busy all this summer reviewing applications and funding microgrants for Burmese refugees on the Thai border, Fall is the time that we get serious about refreshing our bank accounts through selling our silk scarves at craft fairs and at "scarf parties" around the area. After October 15th, selling season begins in earnest, and I'll be telling you what, where and when, should you like to stock up on a few scarves for gift-giving at the holidays. Until then, good luck with your plans for a little social change: you don't need a million up-front to make them happen.

Start Somewhere

2010-03-28T11:35:00.000-07:00

When I meet people at a "scarf party" or through one of our SisterScarf fundraisers, the first thing they often say to me is, "I wish I could do something like this." Then their eyes drift slowly to the floor, as if the answer to finding time for a social action project is lying down there on the rug.

I've often noticed it: people seem to think that there is a secret book of rules somewhere about "creating a project for social change," and that that book is written in a language they don't understand. They seem to think that they would have to totally reorganize their current lives in order to do something like SisterScarf, and that thought is so draining that they end up giving up before they begin.

Everyone can start a small effort toward social change.There is no book of rules, there is no call to abandon your life or make it more complex than it already is. You may start small and decide to stay small, like we have. Or you may start small and end up drinking energy drinks at Davos with Bono. It's up to you. But I recommend you don't wait for some perfect situation to fall into your lap. I recommend that you start somewhere.

Burma or Myanmar?

2010-03-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

We call it Burma, but the current dictatorship calls the country "the Union of Myanmar." Why? For marketing reasons: if you buy something made in Myanmar, you probably won't associate that name with the human-rights abuses for which Burma has become known in the last 40 years.

Just to remind you, Burma is the largest country by geographical area in Indochina (mainland Southeast Asia). The country is bordered by China on the north-east, Laos on the east, Thailand on the south-east, Bangladesh on the west, India on the north-west and the Bay of Bengal to the south-west with the Andaman Sea defining its southern periphery. One-third of Burma's total perimeter, 1,930 kilometres (1,199 mi), forms an uninterrupted coastline.

But trust me, you don't want to surf there.

How we started the Fund.

2010-03-16T18:08:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, I met for coffee with Therese, a friend of mine who had just come back from her usual 6-months-a-year in Thailand, where she spent twenty years as a humanitarian aid worker and now has a farm.

Once again, she brought me a lovely, ethereal silk scarf from Bankok, this one the color of thick cream. I wound it around my neck as she talked again about how she wished there were something we could do for the stateless women up on the Burmese-Thai border, women who were trying to keep their families alive and their orphans cared for and their street children sheltered and their communities surviving. These women were refugees, pushed across the border into Thailand because of political persecution. All had lost much, many did not know where husbands, sons and daughters were. Many were very young. Many, just children.

It took us a few meetings, a few scarves and a few cups of coffee before we put two-and-two together and realized that we could sell Thai scarves here in the States to friends who wanted to do something to help the people on the border, turning all of the profit into micro-grants for projects identified by the women on the border themselves. In other words, we weren't going to be marching in with bright ideas about how they could do things. They would tell us what they wanted to do, we would provide micro-grants to get the ball rolling.

So that's what we've been doing for nine years. Our effort is a small one, because my co-director and I have other, full-time careers. We do not sell the creations of Burmese women, because most of them are not in a position to create a stream of saleable products. We are not tied to the agendas of big funding institutions because we are 100% volunteer and have very low overhead-- 100% of our profit goes into refugee relief projects. We operate as a wholly self-administered program of World Aid, Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

I oversee donations, marketing and fundraisers here in the States. Therese oversees the grant-application and review process in Thailand, and shows up at the Border frequently to see how granted projects are going. In this way we provide stateless women with seed-money and a paper-trail, a track record of their grant process. After completing a micro-grant with us, their track-record makes them eligible for funding from the larger organizations who can't take a bet on an untried, stateless person.

For years now, Americans have been telling me that SisterScarf should have a "web presence," that we should talk about whom we help and sell our scarves on-line. Although it seems the obvious next step, I have stayed with a blog only, and shied away from a larger presence for two reasons:

1. The people we help are stateless. They have no passports: They have no rights. We have to be very careful not to show current pictures of them or name them, so that they will not be targeted for repatriation. It is important to remember that the Burmese dictatorship effectively shut down a revolution recently in three days, using American software to track people who had contributed to or viewed blogs they considered a threat. These people were thrown in jail or executed. There is no real justice system in Burma.

2. Since the people volunteering for SisterScarf have full-time jobs, increasing our scarf sales by selling on the Internet would add more management than is feasible at this time. We use "scarf parties" not only to sell scarves, but to raise awareness through one-to-one conversations. For now, we're sticking to our "party" model and the occasional craft fair until further notice. We'll figure out a way to put more on the web soon.

There are over 140,000 Burmese now in refugee camps on the Thai border, many, many others not registered in the camps. The problems on the border are so large that it is almost impossible not to become discouraged. But years ago, when we were overwhelmed at surveying the immensity of the misery, a Burmese woman said simply, "We've got to start somewhere." I think she said it best.