Make a Difference When You Buy Our Handmade Tote Bags

So, you wonder if your purchase of a Global Bag Project Handmade Tote Bags makes a difference? Just look at the smiles on Jecinter and Carol's faces. When I met them in 2009, I didn't see those smiles. Yes, they smiled when I greeted them; their mouths formed a grin, but the joy and excitement from within was not evident as it is in this photo taken on one of my trips to Kenya in 2010.

The reason they're smiling? Many reasons, really, but on this particular day, I visited them in their homes, met their children, shared tea, listened to their stories and we prayed for one another. The despair of the past has been replaced with hope for the future – not just for themselves, but for their children. The work they're doing with the GBP is helping them establish their own businesses while providing food for their children as well as paying their school fees.
Thank you for your purchases of our beautiful handmade tote bags this past year that contributed to Jecinter and Carol's smiles and to the lives of their children and the other women who provide the beautifully crafted bags for the Global Bag Project. You DO make a difference!

The Kanga Cloth

Originating on the coast of East Africa in the mid-19th century, Kanga is the cloth used to make GBP bags. The Kanga is a rectangle of pure cotton cloth with a border all around it, printed in bold designs and bright colors. It is as long as your outstretched arm and wide enough to cover you from neck to knee, or from chest to toe.

Kangas are typically bought in pairs and are most attractive and useful as a pair. Most traditional outfits require a matched or unmatched pair. Men, women and children all have uses for Kangas. Babies are virtually born in them and are usually carried in a soft sling of kanga cloth. We can make three large GBP bags from one Kanga. The unused scrap fabric is used to make gift bags, patches for aprons and other items sold locally in Nairobi.

Early this century, Swahili words were added to the kangas. The sayings or slogans are often African proverbs. When our GBP “buyer” shops for kanga in the textile district in downtown Nairobi, she reviews the proverbs and ensures they are compatible to our mission.

As an art form as well as a beautiful, convenient garment, the kanga has become an integral part of East African culture. We’d like to believe that the GBP Kanga reusable tote bags will become an integral part of American culture!

Visit the Global Bag Project website and view a Kanga demonstration by Mary Ogalo, our Project Coordinator in Nairobi.

Source: Kangas: 101 Uses by Jeannette Hanby and David Bygott

Buy Yourself These Handmade Totebags and Help a Family

Several families in Africa was suffering from fatal diseases. Parents can't feed their children because of poverty. Be aware of this unpleasant situation and contribute something to help them. Your support can greatly raise and sustain the needs of each family in Africa. Buy these handmade tote bags and be touch of their stories.

Know the story of each bag and feel great. When you procure our bags, you provide a sustainable income for women who desire meaningful work and fair wages and dignity through accomplishment. Many, though not all, are HIV/AIDS widows who live with their children in Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa. Due to the AIDS pandemic on this continent, orphaned children are raising orphaned children. This is a catastrophe the Global Bag Project team would like to help prevent. In the slums, health care is inadequate; no waste management systems exist. Electricity is erratic. Clean water supplies are scarce and drinking water is often impure. Survival obviously is an every day struggle.

HIV/AIDS widows or not, all our bag-producers seek a better life for their families. Hard workers, often amazingly joyful, each woman takes pride in performing good work, and all are grateful to be able to provide basic necessities for their growing families. With just a little help, hidden entrepreneurial skills begin to rise to the surface. We encourage our bag-producers to find local markets for their products.

Remember these women and their families each time you carry your Global Bag Project handmade tote bags.

Buy African Handmade Totebags and Feed a Family

Imagine how great it is using those handmade tote bags while you were able to support the needs of those unfortunate families? You definitely had given your share on giving the new generation a bright future. Those people who made these handmade tote bags were able to find stable employment and thus providing their family's daily needs.

Listen to the story of each bag. When you procure our bags, you provide a sustainable income for women who desire meaningful work and fair wages and dignity through accomplishment. Many, though not all, are HIV/AIDS widows who live with their children in Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa. Due to the AIDS pandemic on this continent, orphaned children are raising orphaned children. This is a catastrophe the Global Bag Project team would like to help prevent. In the slums, health care is inadequate; no waste management systems exist. Electricity is erratic. Clean water supplies are scarce and drinking water is often impure. Survival obviously is an every day struggle.

HIV/AIDS widows or not, all our bag-producers seek a better life for their families. Hard workers, often amazingly joyful, each woman takes pride in performing good work, and all are grateful to be able to provide basic necessities for their growing families. With just a little help, hidden entrepreneurial skills begin to rise to the surface. We encourage our bag-producers to find local markets for their products.

Remember these women and their families each time you carry your Global Bag Project African bags.

Each African Handmade Totebag has a story

With the urge to help the needy and impoverished, Karen Mains and some of her friends who shared the same vision started the  Global Bag Project. This ministry effort organized a cooperative bag-making project, better known as Africa Bags, which started in Nairobi,Kenya. Their goal is link that part of the world with us in a pragmatic way. As a result, micro-industries in Kenya, similar to the ones that once dotted the American landscape and supplemented our own economy during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, have sprung up, bringing life and hope to hundreds of women in Kenya.
Each bag that made is a symbol of the struggle of a Kenyan woman. Thus, each handmade tote bags has a story behind it. Here are some of those stories:Abandoned by her husband, Jecintere was overwhelmed by the responsibility of taking care of her  baby, Patience. She didn’t have ajob. Then she discovered about the Africa Bag program and realized that she could become her own boss. It wasn’t long until she was producing handmade tote bags, and caring for both herself and little Patience.An HIV widow and mother of two daughters, Jennifer was rejected by her in-laws after her husband died because she wouldn’t marry her husband’s brother. Without a home, she left Kibera where she lived, and went to the city to start a new life. She knew of the Africa Bags Project, and found the answer to her prayers.Hannah is a 37-year-old widow. She is also a single mother of six, ranging in age from 21 down to four, including two sets of twins! She is a hard worker, and in September 2010, she showed just how dedicated she is when Global Bag Project Kenya Project Coordinator Mary Ogalo and I - along with seamstresses Salome and Sophie, who are in the GBP sewing cooperative with Hannah - visited her. Hannah rents a two-room home in the Dagoretti Corner of west Nairobi, one of the city’s many low-income neighborhoods.

Handmade Tote Bags for the Children's Future

Many women now producing artisan handmade tote bags for the Global Bag Project
are HIV/AIDS widows from the Kibera sum-the 2nd largest in Africa-where 1 million people live without running water or inside plumbing in a one-square-mile area. Resourceful and determined, all our bag-producers are thrilled to have fair income from meaningful work to feed their children, buy clothes and pay school fees.

Have you seen those unfortunate children in Africa? Extend your help and be aware on what their future holds for them. Support a little money to help feed their families and continue living the way they should be. Buy the handmade tote bags they have created to be able to sustain the needs of their children. When you use these handmade tote bags, think of how happy they have been because of your support.

When you order Global Bag Project handmade tote bags, you are feeding a family and preseving the planet.

Meet some of the handmade tote bags producers and we guarantee their stories will make you want to be a better person!