Crafting for a Cause

In my travels for work I come upon a lot of craft bazaars in other countries. Just today, I stopped in to check out a booth full of items offered by Parsa, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping widows, orphans, and the mentally and physically disabled of Afghanistan through job training, education, counseling, and business development.

Most of the items are made by widows involved in Parsa programs, including these handmade Afghani girl dolls:

I had a hard time picking out just one for my friend's new baby, but finally decided on her:

Parsa doesn't sell any dolls wearing burqas, you will notice, and in Afghanistan you see more and more women who choose not to wear the distinctive light blue face-covering scarf.

Talking with the two women working the booth about their crafts reminded me that I am lucky to be able to do this for the fun of it, and wonder how I could make more of a contribution through making things.

Post written by bennyandheidi