Kanga-cloth Africa Bags

Our kanga-cloth Africa Bags are Just Gorgeous! They are Handmade from Strong, Durable African Kanga Cloth.

Home Sewing Machine

While the cost of a home sewing machine is around $200, we have discovered that it is preferable to purchase a commercial, industrial machine for $350. These break down less and are durable.

Handmade African Bags

Help us promote our handmade African bags. Become a donor: Five donors are giving $30 a month ($360) to increase the strategic Internet footprints to our GBP Website. We need another five to pledge or give this amount. This will match a loan of generously given to us for this purpose by the Alive and Well Foundation.

The People You Don’t Have to Beg to Help

Every once in a while one of those wonderful people comes along and you don’t have to tell them what to do. Pam Hampton dropped past the Global Bag Project sewing room on a trip to Africa last April. She bought a bunch of african handbags for gifts to take home, left a donation, which our Kenya Coordinator, Mary Ogalo, applied toward a trip to Ngong Road, where she ordered metal product display shelves for our beautiful kanga–cloth African handbags.
When Pam returned to the States, she became a "friend" on the GBP Facebook page, and contacted Carla Boelkens, Stateside Director and made plans to hold a party, also arranging to take the leftover bags to the office of Medical Ambassadors, International for their weekly gathering and prayer time.
What a gal! We are deeply grateful for those people who step in and say, "Here’s what I can do."
- Carla Boelkens, Global Director of Global Bag Project

Other Things to Say Thank You About

• This last month, several donors contributed toward Mary Ogalo’s May salary. Thank you!*
• Mary Ogalo introduced the Women’s Cycle of Life training on Wednesday mornings in the sewing room
• Eight new sewing machines were purchased with gifts from a voluntourism group; sewing lessons have begun
• Carla’s trip to Kenya in April was fully funded thanks to generous donations from her family, friends and other faithful supporters.
• Help from friend, Cindy Judge, to start a church strategy marketing plan.
• To Linda Scharaga for pitching in to create our "bag tags" and pillow forms for some sample "pillow bags". She is a gem!
• To Cathie Clark, our retail consultant and order fulfillment gal brings us joy and laughter each time she comes into the office.
• Following her trip to Kenya, Pam Hampton hosted a home party that brought in over $800. Thank you, Pam! This allows us to order more bags from the sewing groups in Nairobi.
• The revamped Global Bag Project Web site downloads much faster than before.

A Constant Reminder of Families That Have Been Fed

Mary Ogalo, our Global Bag Project Kenya Project Coordinator, has come up with a new design we're really excited about: Designer Laptop Bags! The cost of each computer laptop bag is just $35. You can order laptop bags for your spouse, yourself, or your students in high school or college from any office supply store, but in our case each bag comes with a really unique custom design from Africa.
No two bags are identical! They are truly unique, made in various eye-catching African animal prints, padded on the sides and bottom of the bag and zippered at the top, to protect your laptop computer, but also give you an easy way to transport it around campus, work or school, or when traveling.
This is another gift option for birthdays, anniversaries, Thanksgiving and even for Christmas.
So order your designer laptop bags online now, or give us a call and place your advanced order now.

Dial 630-293-4500 or e-mail Carla
 
Dimensions = 18" wide by 16" tall by 4 1/2" deep. Also, the laptop bags are padded on the sides and bottom of the bags.

laptop bags | global bag project

Visiting Global Bag Project

I spent a couple of weeks putting together a letter asking for travel funds for three of us who plan to visit the Global Bag Project, our work where a handful of Kenyan women are lifting themselves out of poverty by sewing lovely, artisan African bags. The project is at a crucial growth stage, and although I would like just to apply the travel funds toward their fabric purchases and their salaries, ten days spent together hugely encourages them, generates all kinds of product ideas and business plans, and keeps the stateside crew pumped for about six months!

Since my husband and I and our Global Bag Project Director have traveled to Africa about 11 times in the last five years, we have drained our personal resources and do need to look to friends to contribute to the travel fund.

You can imagine our wonder when a film project David and I had been talking about with another organization actually came through for the exact time we were planning to be in Kenya for a shoot!

This means our airfare, and half of our land fee, will be covered, and now all I have to do is raise land expense for two for the weeks we aren’t shooting!

When we teach people how to go on the God Hunt, we recommend they look for unusual evidences of God’s care. This certainly is an immediate example of that out of our personal experience. Not only do we love this kind of work since we were in the media industries for over 20 years and regret that we are not able to use our expertise in that field much, but the provision of the budget means is always a sign to us of God’s green light to involve ourselves in a project. When He doesn’t want us heading in certain directions, He just closes down the financial means!

With full and grateful hearts, we will be in pre-production planning on this film adventure for the next two months—grateful to be chosen. In addition, the funds will allow us to visit the Global Bag Project sewing sites, interact with our friends, and make joint plans for the future growth of the GBP development project.

Global Bag Project | Global Bag Project Facebook

Global Bag Project - a Social Enterprise

An Ignite Excellence Foundation Special Presentation.

An update on past Foundation Scholarship recipient Mary Ogalo, now Kenya Project Manager for Global Bag Project in Nairobi Kenya.

The Global Bag Project is a US based non-profit social enterprise that donates the proceeds from the sales of reusable shopping bags in the developed world to microcredit ventures in the emerging world.

The aim of the Global Bag Project is to finance micro-credit loans which help local entrepreneurs support their families with small businesses, provide basic amenities and send their children to school. Micro-credit finance has a good reputation so far, with 96-98% of people repaying their loans weekly or monthly. Many workers of the project hail from the Kibera slum - one of the largest in Africa -- and are either HIV/AIDS positive and are still managing their jobs despite this. They are entitled to a fair wage and this allows them to provide for their families.

Global Bag Project | Global Bag Project Facebook