Ancient Art in a Modern World
Buy a basket, help a child...
Thandi Mhlongo, a Zulu teacher and school principal, founded a cooperative that she named Ikusasalethu, which means 'our future'. She organized over 5,000 rural women into groups of 30 to promote stable, self-sufficient families through fellowship. Through the cooperative, the women pass on the traditional arts of basket weaving and beading.
The Kwa-Zulu Natal Province, where the basket makers live, has an unemployment rate of about 40%. AIDS infects approximately one in three persons here. Malaria, cholera and tuberculosis also take their toll and many children are orphaned. Since the end of apartheid, tribal children have been allowed to attend school, however, school is not free and parents must provide school uniforms and books, as well as pay tuition. The sale of the baskets supplements the incomes, or in some cases, provides the only means of income, for the people who make them. Until recently, the baskets were sold mainly to tourists by the hit-or-miss fashion of sending the children to stand outside popular tourist areas to solicit sales. There was no market for the baskets with Natives, nor were they desired by white South Africa.
Photo of Thandi is coming soon.
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