Returning to Sri Lanka

For the last year bags of colour has been running on a very small scale and has managed to provide work for a local family, who have been helping me to run the project and for 3 other women.

It is now time to return to Sri Lanka to bring this idea into full blossom, and offer the opportunity to more women in poorer communities, and to hopefully create a solid foundation from which the project can then be extended to other developing countries.

Currently funds to develop the project are limited, but faith and determination is plentiful, so I will keep marching forward and trust that it will come together beautifully. However if you would like to donate to help this small project grow then we would be very grateful you can do so by following the link below. http://www.mrsite.co.uk/usersitesv12/bethshepherd.com/wwwroot/page16.htm

Encouragement!

Hi I have just discovered to my surprise that the Spanish Insight has just published another story about Bags of Colour, actually they have used the story from my recent news letter on the project and put me as the author, so I have officially had my first magazine article published…. so I am very excited, as this has been a dream of mine.

They first published my story of setting up Bags of Colour in May 09 edition, they did such a good job and gave me a full page spread, adding in some creative graphics with the bags. I am so touched by the support and encouragement they have given me, it really gives me the strength to keep going!! Thanks Julie and everyone from Spanish Insight.

Check out the links below to see the stories.

http://www.spanishinsight.com/magazine.php?ver=may09&docid=090602132403-100130ac42b440bf8cf5d7b86b520289 (MAY edition)

http://www.spanishinsight.com/magazine.php?ver=spanishinsight-august09&docid=090817133154-81ada2411083474ab68b144edb9bd496 (AUG edition)

Life is beautiful!

Seizing opportunities!

Lalitha’s Story continued!

 Lalitha’s is one of the first ladies I brought into the project; you may have read her story in my blog. She lives with her mother in a tsunami affected fishing village just on the edge of Colombo. Her house, to our eyes looks like a shack, but to her and her mother it is home and it is all they have. Surrounded by many other families in similar conditions, many much worst. Believe it or not, this small cluster of homes, nestled between the shores of the beach and the train tracks (actually so close to the train track that I would say most people there could touch the passing train from inside their house) is situated right next to one of the best hotels in Sri Lanka, Mount Lavina, a 5 start colonial style grand place, with rooms for $120 a night, seems so unbalanced.

 

Lalitha is 43, and never married, and in Sri Lankan culture there is little chance of her marrying at her age, and with hardly any work for women life was a real struggle for her. So when Lalitha joined my project it was a big turning point for her, and she quickly seized the opportunity and began making more bags than anyone else. It was a turning point for me too, as the project had just begun and she got it going for me, working along side the family and sending regular boxes of bags to sell, not to mention that her ability to seize the opportunity given to her, (when 5 other women form her village who were also given the opportunity turned it down complaining it was too far to come on the bus) has been a huge inspiration to me in my own journey to get this project up and running.

 

When I saw her I knew she had strength and determination, and I only wanted motivated women, women who could use bags of colour as a stepping stone to move out of poverty. I prayed that I would find the right women and I did. However last week I found out she has got a job in Dubai as a house maid and has now left Sri Lanka and our project. My immediate reaction was oh no I have let her down I didnt provided enough work for her and she has had to go else where. What a crazy way to look at this and when my panic subsided, I looked at it for what it truly is, I had given her the means to move forward and out of poverty, I had done exactly what I had intended, I had become so caught up in the fact that I hadn’t yet got the ‘big order’ I thought the project needed to help these women that I over looked that I was helping them.

 

Nearly every Sri Lankan I met, who was living in poverty knew that a job in the middle east for a couple of years would give them enough money to return to Sri Lanka and help their family to make that shift out of poverty and even use that money to set up a small business in their paradise island which they love so much. Lalitha was clever she knew what she was doing, using the money from bags of colour to get her visa and her flight out and up. She is an inspiration to me and I am blessed to have had the opportunity to help her on her way.

Now our project is one woman short, one very brilliant woman, but I am sure that there are a 1000 more to fill her place. I just need to get out there and find her.

Life is beautiful when you see it for what it really is!

Spain and Sun

I am now back in beautiful Spain, the bags are selling well in local market stalls, its great to get away from the computer and to just enjoy meeting new people, sharing the story of bags of colour and selling bags. The family in Sri Lanka are happy as they making bags daily and we are introducing some new bags. I am planning to go back there in september, this will be fantastic as its challenging running things when I am not in the country (not to mention the language barrier), and so wonderful to see everyone again.

Forget rules!

Things have been a little quiet for Bags of Colour, I have contacing buyers and searching for that ‘big order!’ But the more I pressed forward into an area I have never ventured, my heart sank more and more. Why did I set up Bags of Colour, quite simply to give work for women who need it, and of course I cannot save the world, but I maybe able to provide a handful of women a chance of a brighter future, just by sharing my love of colour. So why is it so important for shop owners to ask questions like are you a memeber of BFTA, IFTA or ones I cant remember. ‘No I am just someone with a creative idea, and a desire to give back’. Do they really care, I asked myself, were they interested in my story no, or my passion for the project, no (some were) they just cared about rules, and looking good, and names and labels. I am glad of this experience as it has just made me stornger in what I believe in, we live in a world that is begining to feel so boxed. I love it when I met those who choose to ignor that box and live outside of it, there is nothing that we can control in this world, just our happiness by living from our heart and following our passion.

So with that we are now selling Bags of Colour online and exhibitions where I will share my photography and my story. look out for exhibition dates on my website.

An inspiring story….

Spain, Chez Spice

The Costa Calida Informer in Spain has just published my story. It looks brilliant and I am really greatful for their interest in my story and bags of colour. http://www.informernews.org/ Thanks Alicia and Calida informer for your help and for covering the story.

Dear readers

This is Beth’ story of how visit to Sri Lanka left her so inspired that she set up a business selling colourful eco shopping bags thereby creating work for women in Sri Lanka who have been living in poor conditions with little or no income. Read on for details of this amazing story

I first met Piyush, from Chez Spice Los Romanes, when I ate at his restaurant in May 08 whist visiting my Uncle Dennis Lewis who lives in Comares. Piyush and I both seemed to share the same interest in setting up projects with a passion to make a difference. He was just about to go off to Paraguay and I was about to go back to Sri Lanka, after returning from there in March. During my previous trip to Sri Lanka I had met a lot of local people and became inspired by the colours of the country, and just as I was leaving I came up with the idea to make colourful eco shopping bags and offer work for women who have been living in poor conditions with little or no income. Piyush and I remained friends whilst we went on our travels, however after I caught dengue fever in remote part of the country and was misdiagnosed twice, with things looking quite serious he flew over, followed shortly by my family. After 2 weeks in hospital and still feeling very week I was let out, and soon I was back sourcing fabrics and wizzing around Colombo the capital in a tuk tuk. With the added support of my family and Piyush the project quickly grew wings and I soon had samples and was working with a wonderful local family.

 

However the project really took off when one Sunday whilst out for lunch we came across a seemingly neglected tsunami village, with women and their families living in shacks. I quickly saw the opportunity and invited them to join my project. Piyush and my family left and together with the Sri Lanka family, we found a small center to base the project from, and with a donation from Piyush I was able to rent it for a year and buy sewing machines.

 

As soon as I returned from Sri Lanka to the UK I flew straight to Spain to be with Piyush. We began selling the bags in his restaurant, and displaying my story with photos of the women and the family. The bags being so bright, colourful and unique sold really quickly, mainly with to the English community, and there was also a lot of interest from Spainish customers, I gained a lot of support from everyone in general. Piyush had been planning for a while to visit his home town of Inhambane in Mozambique, in November and invited me to join, this was a real dream come true and together with a lot of other people we began fundraising using the bags as another way of raising money as well as my photography, holding 2 big fundraising events at the restaurant. The project was a great success and together we helped to improve the lives of a group of street kids.

 

My project bags of colour is doing really well and I am now launching a new website. I send out regular mailing list keeping contact with some of the wonderful people from Chez Spice who brought some of my first bags and helped me to get my project off the ground. The bags have also been on sale in Energia, Palico Blanco Hotel in Velez Malaga and also the Traphce market some Tuesdays. The bags are made using minimal electricity, using fabric woven on traditional handloom machines and then sewn on foot powered sewing machines in either our small center or in the women’s homes, they are all in the brightest colours possible so as to make a bold statement about ethical and eco living, and have just added the slogan ‘Change we can’ by Obama after being so inspired by his positive message of change. I am currently in the UK for the next few weeks, to introduce my bags the UK market, and considering setting up a foundation to extending to further products. http://www.bagsofcolour.com

The beauty of money!

I just found myself in my local bank talking to one of the staff about The Alchemis, The secret, the laws of the universe, living your passion and most importantly the thing we all ’strive’ for happiness. Thank you so much Hiteshi (I hope I spelt your name right) for reminding me of that which is true. I think we have now moved into a very interesting time in the world, I have met so many people who have lost their jobs and have said that they really want to be doing something more creative and from their heart, is that we lost the ability to live from our heart and to have faith in life, have we been trying so far to control the world around to keep us ’safe’ and all that has done is caused us to feel empty and dry inside.

If you have ever spent any amount of time in a ‘3rd world’ country then, unless you had your eyes closed you will understand what is beautiful about their way of life, that I think most of us long for deep down even if we are not aware of it, their ability to be happy, regardless, happy with life and with the simplest thing. This week I have been writing my press release to send out to all the papers and magazines, to share my story, but as I have been writing it I have been asking myself what motivated me to create colourful eco bags, was it the colours of the country, was it the handloom fabric, was it the desire to make an income, was it to create a project to help women, to share my artistic ability, to inspire people to become eco friendly, yes to all of them, but there is one thing deeper than all of these things, a desire to capture and share that which is found everywhere you look in Sri Lanka, and which we are looking for in the west; happiness, simplicity, love of life, joy, all those thing that, no matter what we think do not come from money, and are wonderfully, beautify FREE! Money is just a tool to allow us to giving more of that which comes from your heart naturally.

Have we in the west built a cage for ourselves, looking down on those in developing countries as less than us, thinking we know the answers? Has our desire to create wealth led us to separate ourselves from our heart, quite possible, and of course this is not true of everyone. However my journey and experience of being able to see both side of our world, has led me to my conclusion that works for me. The opportunities available to us in the west can set us free, if we allow ourselves to live from our heart and to give our gifts to the world. In the east many of the people I have met have that beauty and simplicity in their nature that we so often loose when we move past our childhood, that wonderful freedom and connection to their true nature, but are so limited by financial means, and speaking to many of those people I know for sure that if they did have the financial means they would use it to make a difference to the lives of others. We do in the western world the access to the opportunities to make money, however many of us have lost connection to our true nature in the process of accumulating money, that beautiful simplicity, that we cannot see how to use that money to live a life that is based on happiness and fulfilment.

I don’t want to be ‘poor’ and full of dreams to give back to the world and make a difference but limited by my means, and I don’t want to be ‘rich’ and empty and disconnected to that which is truly in my heart. I want to live from my heart, with passion and integrity and to give to others and experience the joy of giving and sharing, and to have enough money to allow me to do exactly this. Money can add to this world in the most beautiful way when used as a tool for us to live from our hearts.

So to all those people who find themselves with no job, find the strength to ask yourself what you desire in you heart, and go for it. As for my bags if they spread a little sunshine and remind us that the things that we strive for are actually the things we already have inside of us, we just need to waken to our own inner happiness, then I have made a difference. http://www.bagsofcolour.com  http://www.bethshepherd.com

Have you had the ‘One bag wont make a difference’ syndrome?

I think we have all had it at some time, many times I am sure in fact. Your in the supermarket, its late, your hungry, your grabbing your shopping, you have good intentions of helping the environment but you forgot your eco bag, I guess it wont hurt its only one bag. It occurred to me just how many people, somewhere in the world, are think that same thought at the same time, this then makes your one innocent plastic bag not just one, but one of many.

I believe we can all ‘be the change we wish to see in the world’, just by making small changes in our daily lives. A lot of us are blind to the impact we create in this world, the foot prints we leave behind when we walk our path through life. From my own experience in life, I have grown to believe this is often because we think that even if we tried to make a small difference it would be so insignificant that it would hardly scratch the surface.

However after watching Obama inauguration speech I am reminded of my vision that we can create better in our world, and not by each of us waiting for someone else to fix it for us, but by believing in our own greatness and our own abilities to make that difference.

Therefore I have created ‘Bags of Change’, the same bags of colour bags, just with a positive statement added to the pocket from someone who has proven we can achieve great things and we can impact positive change. Dare to be seen with a ’Bags of Change’ bag by and spread a positive message. http://www.bagsofcolour.com  http://www.bethshepherd.com

What is a Bamboo Bag?

 

Bamboo bags rolled up

Have you ever got to the shops and remembered you don’t have your reusable shopping bag, and with the best intentions to save the planet, you have no choice but to use a handful of the innocent looking plastic bags that the shop has provided. We have all don’t it. Our Bamboo bags are designed to reduce the amount of time you are caught short!

I wanted to create a bag that could be carried everywhere with you, and that you would love to using. I wanted to make it easier for each of us to remember to carry a reusable bag. So I came up with the idea for Bamboo bags, made in the same way as the original bag which I first made, using wonderful handloom cotton woven of a foot power machine, supporting a forgotten Sri Lankan industry, and made in the same bright, bold, loud colours, so that they make a bold statement about positive living. However, with this bag I wanted to be sure it could be as convenient as possible for you to always have it with you. So with this in mind I adapted the design from other bags I had seen, but with my bag I decided to make use of the abundance of natural products available in Sri Lanka and use Bamboo sticks for the handles, the I added coconut buttons on the base so that when you have finished with the bag, it can be rolled down from the handles to the base and fastened using the buttons, making the bag into a tube shape. The bag then fits perfect in your hand or under your arm, like a news paper, or inside your handbag or rucksack, to make sure you it is always with you. I am now in the process of creating a special Bamboo bag handbag, to make it even more convenient to carry your bag with you. I chose to use as much colour as possible because I want my bags to shout out at you when you leave the house ‘don’t forget to take me with you’, and to shout out to others people who see you using one ‘I am bright and bold, and I am a symbol of ethical sustainable living’, I want people who use my bags to be proud to be taking actions and to be seen doing it, to inspire others. 

 Make an impact and make it a positive impact!!

http://www.bagsofcolour.com  http://www.bethshepherd.com 

Dengue fever disaster

 Takne from my journal; 30th june 08

Wow, I have just finally left hospital after a 7 day visit there to recover from dengue fever, crazy and I still have no idea really has just happened to me, and the best part of it is that my life seems to have just turned around, which is funny seeing as I was at deaths door. One minute I was fine relaxing in Hikkadawa in a small guest house by the beach, then within about 2 hours I felt sick and suddenly my legs and knees felt like tree two branches that someone was swinging on, like they were about to break, and then came the fever.

The local owners of the guest house assured me it was just a fever. However after a night of very high temperature, sweating and shivering, with aching all through my body, I visited the local doctor the next morning, only to find that she just laughed it off as a common fever and prescribed me with an overload of uless drug, and said it will be gone in about 7 days. After 4 days it was still going strong and none of the symptomes had subsided, and I hadnt kept any water or food down. So this time a trip to the local ‘private’ hospital seemed a better idea. Thought seemed promising and   I made the hour journey in a three wheeler, which I dont recomend at the best of times. Again the digonosis was ‘its just a fever’, but what kind of innocent fever makes your pulse weaken in your hands to the point you cant hold them up for more than a few seconds.

After 5 days and no sign of improvement, and with no one around me who could help, or who seemed to take it more seriously than ‘just a fever’, I decided to move to a proper hotel where the staff actually took care of their guests. However on the 6th i started hemorging, so that was it I knew this wasn’t going to disepear after 7 days, so the next day I managed somehow to get myself to Colombo, a 3 hour driver I will never forget.

Finally I was in good hands, and I was quickly digonosed with Dengue, however I wasnt out of the woods and my blood platlets were dropping by the day, so much that I was very close to a blood transfusion. Thats when things really turned around, and Piyush came to help me, and funny enough turned out to have the same blood group as me to do the transfusion. I met him in May only twice at his restaurant in Spain, we really clicked but I was going off to Sri Lanka and him to Paraguay. But as soon as he heard I was ill he rushed to see me, and slept in the chair by my bed for the first 3 nights so if I was really sick he could wake up quickly. I soon realised I didnt want to be apart from him.

I feel like my life has begun again and the first place I am going   is to find somewhere to eat   masala dosa!!  

 http://www.bagsofcolour.com  http://www.bethshepherd.com