In 2003, AMO started a successful Arts & Crafts program at our ministry center in Gleba B. Many women from the favelas face challenges of unemployment; it is difficult to find a job as many are often undereducated and may have several little children at home. Our goal was to provide training in a practical skill that the women could use to produce and sell products while working out of their homes.
Local church members volunteered their time to teach fabric painting, crochet, ribbon work, and macramé to the women who wanted to participate in this project. In 2003, WorldCrafts, Inc., (a division of WMU) began buying dishtowels from our ladies! With the income provided through this project, some of the women were able to pay off their debts, upgrade their homes from wooden shacks to brick houses, move back to their city of origin, or continue to work and save enough money to purchase a plot of land!
This project made a tremendous impact and strengthened their personal relationships with their neighbors and community! The classes strengthen their personal relationships with their neighbors and the community. Some of the young girls who grew up within our church at the A.M.O. Headquarters learned the Arts & Crafts projects from the original volunteers and are now using their skills to produce arts and crafts items to sell on their own to help support themselves, as they are now full-time missionaries! In addition to dishtowels, they paint knick-knack boxes, make jewelry and more! If you are interested in learning more about their work, their contact information can be found on the Our Team page.
At this time, we are only offering classes upon request; we would not be able to meet WorldCrafts supply needs therefore we do not have a standing order with them at this time. However, our goal is to duplicate the original program in various favelas throughout Sao Paulo. We are currently building a Family Ministry Center in one of our Sao Paulo locations and are excited at the prospect of using this center to further reach out to the women in that community with the Arts & Crafts program.
