StreetWise is a social enterprise designed to help severely impoverished men and women out of poverty. They publish a weekly magazine called StreetWise that the vendors purchase and then distribute at a profit.
five ACCESSORIES is working with StreetWise and its vendors to create handmade accessories using recycled urban "refuse," such as ticket stubs, bottle caps and similar items collected from the streets of Chicago. The Off the Street project generates income for participating StreetWise vendors.
Leticia Quinonez is a StreetWise Vendors making the pop top bracelets. Her personalized hangtag quotes, "Don't criticize the less fortunate, or you'll walk the same path yourself."
pop top bracelet
Leticia Quinonez
Our eco-friendly designer handbags and jewelry from bali are made out of natural fibers such as bamboo, coconut shells, and straw. We are employing individuals from small villages to hand-craft the items. Five dollars from each handbag sale and 15% from each jewelry sale goes towards a foundation that supports under privileged school children to help them continue their education. This effort was inspired by our Balinese Business Partner's Life Story.
While honeymooning in Bali, the founders of five met a Balinese man who told them how, many years ago, a gift of $5 a month from an American couple who visited Bali greatly impacted his life. This act of good karma helped him stay in school, improve his English and even send his kids to college. Today, he oversees the crafting of five products in Bali and is instrumental to our giving efforts in Bali.
In Bali, tourism accounts for more than 80% of the local economy. For those not in the tourist trade, some own small shops, while a significant minority adhere to a time-honored agrarian lifestyle, mostly farming rice in steeply terraced fields that carpet many of the lush green mountainsides and winding valleys that cover Bali.
Some of the schoolchildren in Bali
that have received money from Five
These Eco-Friendly Bags are made by recycling potato chip bags that litter the communities of Honduras. This new project was created and is administered by a women's cooperative of organic, shade-grown coffee producers in the mountains of Comayagua, Honduras. The sale of these bags provides needed income to these women and gives families an alternative to the standard practice of burning trash.
members of the co-op
making
the
bags with a little help
from the kids
The Eco-Friendly Bag Collection
Near Mumbai, pictured is an overview of the low income neighborhood that where our co-operative began.
Items are developed by women first looking at the skills and needs of the artisans while keeping in mind the tastes and preferences of the customer. For Example, most of the artisans need to work at home so that they can combine work with their daily household responsibilities. Many of the artisans do not know how to use a machine and therefore hand embroidery has become the hallmark of MarketPlace.
Economic development, however, is only the first step but essential step towards enhancing the self-esteem and leadership of the women artisans who are part of the MarketPlace Network. They are now using the skills they have developed in business to improve opportunities for their children and are also going one step further – they are influencing social change in their local communities, ensuring there is clean water, adequate daycare, and better health care facilities.
"When I lived in the village I didn't know anything, but MarketPlace brought out my hidden talent for doing beautiful embroidery. Only after I came to work here did I experience the freedom to earn and to learn: to have access to money and the freedom to create good designs." -- Seema, Udaan Mandal CooperativeView in India.
The Eco-Friendly Bag Collection
Giving Back to Cambodia: Our fair trade products handmade in developing areas of Asia support a grassroots organization in Cambodia that aims to help women and children who are victims of human trafficking and sex slavery. $5.00 from each fair trade handbag handmade by world artisians in the developing country of Cambodia is donated to Transitions Global, www.transitionsglobal.org.
Trafficking in persons is a global problem embedded in a web of poverty, political transition, inadequate female education and economic opportunity and the low value placed on women and children. The International Organization for Migration estimates as many as 4 million people are trafficked each year, a quarter of which are children. Trafficking is a $10 billion dollar a year business. In Asia, women and children are trafficked into prostitution and forced labor within their own countries as well as overseas.
Buy locally and support globally by purchasing one of our sustainable totes and fair trade totes using recycled rice bags from Cambodia.
Local Children being helped by Ivory Coast Women and Children
The fair trade small tote bag from Cambodia
Apna Ghar is a domestic violence shelter serving primarily Asian women, and was the first Asian shelter of its kind in the Mid-Western United States. five ACCESSORIES is supporting Apna Ghar's SEW (Sewing Empowers Women) group to hand sew customized designs for Five Accessories.
By utilizing leather remnants donated from The Furniture Store, a local furniture maker, that otherwise would have been discarded in the trash dumps, the Apna Ghar ladies are using the leather to create unique, hand-sewn business card holders, change purses, and small over the shoulder purses and handbags, with more ideas and design to come.
The partnership with five ACCESSORIES allows the women involved with Apna Ghar's SEW program to move forward towards economic success and feel good about creating something that others deem fashionable.
The Eco-Friendly Bag Collection
We offer eco friendly designer handbags and wood jewelry from FIVE countries. Our designer charity handbags from Bali, Honduras, Cambodia and India are carefully handcrafted out of recycled material, natural fibers, eco chic bamboo, recycled potato chip bags and candy wrappers.
Our mission is to create income generating programs for individuals, donate a large portion of our sales to worthy charitable causes and foster the use of sustainable material in fashion. Check out our latest income generating program of accessories handmade by the vendors of Chicago's StreetWise under the Accessories Tab/Off The Street.
Check us out at our new location in the Andersonville Galleria, located at 5247 N Clark St., Chicago, IL.
Orders ship within one to two business days UPS Ground for $10. Questions with orders call 312-504-3483.
