Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Out of the horrors of war that no one should have to witness come art, beauty, healing and self-sufficiency.
Click on macys.com/rwanda and view the handmade baskets made by Rwandan women, survivors of the genocide there that killed 800,000 people in 100 days in 1994. The weavers of these baskets are the widows and orphans. They are the rape victims. They were infected by HIV. They were on both sides of the conflict.
"The single thing that floored me most when I went there the first time was that they could emerge from incredible horror to make exquisite, beautiful, finely made objects," said Willa Shalit, who has led efforts to bring the baskets to Macy's.
An activist who works for social change through art, with a focus on women, Shalit was a special adviser to the United Nations Development Fund for Women UNIFEM, which went to Rwanda to offer economic development help to women after the genocide. Shalit, 50, is the daughter of NBC film critic Gene Shalit; the producer of the off-Broadway hit The Vagina Monologues; and a sculptor.
When the Rwandan president's plane was shot down in 1994, killing him and the president of neighboring Burundi, the government, dominated by the Hutu ethnic group, blamed its longtime opponents, the minority ethnic Tutsis, and Hutu moderates. The Hutus embarked on 100 days of unbridled killing and maiming with guns and grenades. They clubbed and hacked people to death in their homes, in churches and in mission compounds. Before the vio-
lence ended, one-tenth of the nation's population was dead. The developed world, including the United States and the United Nations, largely ignored the horrors.
Noeleen Heyzer, executive director of UNIFEM, met with surviving Rwandan women - both Tutsis and Hutus - who belonged to local weaving groups. "She knew that charity wasn't what they needed, so she said: 'Show me what you make. Bring me what you make,' " Shalit said in a telephone interview. They brought her their baskets, which had never been exported but held a special place in Rwandan culture, both for utilitarian purposes and as gifts from women to women.
After several years of work to create a supply system in Rwanda and a retail distribution system in this country, a deal was reached with Macy's.
"This is not a charitable effort, this is a business program," said Ronnie Taffet, the retailer's vice president for corporate marketing.
Terry Lundgren, president and chief executive of Federated Stores, Macy's parent, "felt the product was the correct thing for the Macy customer. Everyone along the way has seen the beauty in the product and the salability, and when they hear the story that this is creating a sustainable business in Rwanda, they just embrace this program. These women are earning money, not being given a handout. It's a win-win for everyone."
Now designers in Macy's home division are working with the weavers to come up with new products, such as placemats, and different styles, shapes and colors for the baskets to broaden the product line.
A shipment of 8,000 Rwandan Path to Peace baskets quickly sold out last year. A new shipment of 30,000 has just arrived that Macy's will sell online or at stores in Herald Square, New York City; Chicago; and Atlanta.
The baskets, made from sisal, sweetgrass, banana leaves and papyrus, are priced from $30 to $80. Each of the 2,500 weavers receives $3 to $18 for her work, depending on size and complexity of each basket. The annual per capita income in Rwanda is $230.
"Most of the weavers had never held money before," Shalit said. "They do subsistence farming. They're dirt poor. They never had money. Health insurance costs $8 a year. Before, it was unattainable. Now it's attainable, and that's completely life-transforming. They can buy a goat or a cow, they can buy shoes for their kids, pay their school fees, adopt more orphans. This has completely transformed their lives.
"During the genocide they screamed out and no one answered them," Shalit said. "The world cared nothing; they were worth nothing to the world. Now they can make something of their culture that is received so enthusiastically by Americans. It's that sense of pride that really transforms them from hopeless to having light in their eyes."
Information from the BBC News and historyplace.com was used in this report.
Judy Stark can be reached at (727) 893-8446 or stark@sptimes.com
To see more of The St. Petersburg Times, go to http://www.sptimes.com .
© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.
