The Mothers Who Make a Living that Matters
While Cebu is always known as the Queen City, it has been kindly to its true royalty — the queens that weave bags for a cause. The city's Rise Above Foundation has come up with their Livelihood Program to unravel purposeful work for the mothers of the children at their Family Care Center. First is bag-weaving. These carry-ons are knitted recycled rice sacks, plastic-laminated, and color-printed which have birthed the good-natured Recybags. It may seem simplistic, but the layers within the bags carry love amid native travails. Because of their individual reminiscenses, they can bind the sacks variously which makes all products never similar from each other.
Photo by: Rise Above Foundation
To tether their skills to the process, the mothers have undergone training for two days, sponsored by the Rise Above Foundation. Having learned to bind upcycled sacks into rainbow-hued bags, the mothers now have a steady job, overjoyed with their newfound yet already-honed craft. Presently, they are part of the foundation conducting teachings for other women in certain areas of Cebu. Recybags have been a poetic grail of their experience, as they have renewed themselves into weaving lifestyle bags for a living.
Photo by:
Rise Above Foundation
Besides the carry-ons, a faction of the mothers are also masters at crafting leatherware. The Rise Above Foundation receives cut-offs from a specific export company which are used for making. Being artisans, the women trim and sew these resources, amazingly molding belts, bracelets, hairbands, and earrings like they are cookies from the oven.
Beyond the mothers, a special livelihood is provided by Rise Above Foundation for Marites and her brother Dennis, who are both differently-abled — they suffer from Osteo-genesis Imperfecta. The foundation have met the siblings at a special school in 2001 and have since been in contact. To support their living, Marites and Dennis craft whimsical cards as the foundation invests art materials to help them with their work. The cards are sold locally and globally and are available at Facebook.com/Marites.Lazarte. Marites and Dennis also source second-hand clothes with assistance from the foundation. The siblings sell the pre-loved apparel through the organization.
Photo by:
Rise Above Foundation
The mothers at the Rise Above Foundation are foremost in bringing Recybags plus other likha across the Philippines, being good-cause royalties of Cebu. Their partnership has made possible a livelihood that matters, such that is differently better with every creation.
Watch the full video and get to know more about Rise Above Foundation:
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