Our Mission

Our mission is to help improve the lives of hard-working women and families in the world’s poorest countries. We do this by following fair trade guidelines, developing awareness about poverty, and promoting good-cause sales and gift giving. Specifically:

• We develop relationships with individuals and small artisan groups and purchase their products at fair prices, creating sustainable employment for those surviving on the edge of poverty.

• We import their unique, handcrafted items and offer them for sale via our website, in retail stores, and at home parties and craft fairs/gift markets.

• We reinvest our profits into these same communities, and we support fair trade organizations that are working to eliminate poverty and promote sustainability ventures around the world.

Our History

Jinja Jewels was inspired by a volunteer trip to Jinja, Uganda in the summer of 2007.  During the trip, Jinja Jewels’ founder, Stacey Ferguson, was approached by a local woman who was selling necklaces made from handcrafted paper beads.  The necklaces were unique and beautiful, and after Stacey bought several pieces from the woman, she learned that the art of making paper beads (made from old magazines and posters) is practiced in several areas of Uganda as a way for impoverished women to make an income and support their families. What these women often lacked was a market to sell the beads. Stacey decided to bring the necklaces back home and sell them in her local “American market.”

The first fifty necklaces sold quickly. Stacey promoted the sales with a good-cause clause: the proceeds from the necklaces would be sent back to Africa to a local Ugandan non-profit called AOET (AIDS Orphans Education Trust), a Christian organization that supports orphans and the families who foster them with a school, medical clinic, HIV outreach program, family village, and sustainability training. The people who bought the jewelry seemed to value the “good-cause” concept as much as they enjoyed the jewelry.

In December 2007, Jinja Jewels was created to provide a way to increase sales, promote fair trade, good-cause organizations, and educate and inspire others about the world’s poorest. In May 2008, Jinja Jewels’ name was changed to Jinja Fair Trade, in order to better reflect the intent and nature of the business.