About Us
Using Trade Not Aid to Lift Women's LivesEmpowering women
About F.R.E.E
Foundation for the Realization of Economic Empowerment began in 2011 with a training center for sewing in one of Lusaka, Zambia’s peri-urban communities. After a year, 25 women graduated and began their own enterprise. They continually struggled to pay the rent on their tiny shop, let alone make an income to take home.
Jewelry looked like a decidedly more lucrative option for economically empowering women so with How To books in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other we began teaching another group of women in Ng’ombe Compound how to create jewelry from copper wire. Zambia is one of the world’s largest producers of copper but with little local manufacturing. Those early days were a real struggle and the initial group of women all left, without having made a single marketable piece after four months! When we thought the dream would die, two young women arrived and within a week were making sale-able pieces.
Currently a group of 10 young women manufacture jewelry from our premises in Ng’ombe Compound. We’ve learned how to solder, to etch, to enamel, to string beads, to rivet, to fold form, and a myriad of other skills. We ventured into gemstone cutting and silversmithing. In February 2018 two women have completed training in silversmithing. We are excited about using Zambia’s beautiful gems in rough or polished form in our jewelry, whether copper or silver.
We are continually looking for more markets, whether wholesale or retail. We have the capacity to produce in quantity. We transform our individualized style of production into an assembly line, with all the women participating in the manufacturing process. Most orders can be filled in two to four weeks, depending on size.
Our vision is to take the success and lessons we’ve learned with the jewelry and start other projects. We’ve been seeking funding to develop the handcraft sector of Zambia on a national scale with F.R.E.E. providing ongoing support through market linkages. Watch this space in the upcoming years as we develop new products!
Why Women?
That women are discounted and exploited is evident in nearly every society throughout the world. Legislation does little to change mindsets. Our vision as F.R.E.E. is not to fight for our rights but to open the eyes of women to who they are.
Women’s rights are inherent. They are not something to be demanded. Women have equal value to men. They were born with value. Sadly, they may not know how valuable they are or society may not recognize their value.
Myles Munroe, in his book Understanding the Purpose and Power of Woman, said, “Much of the discussion of women’s rights centers on what a woman is capable of doing and what she should be allowed to do. I would like to suggest, however, that these questions, while important, are actually secondary questions.
The fundamental question, from which all other questions can be addressed, is not so much what a woman does as who she is, and the implications of who she is. When we come to know who a woman is, then the role that she takes on in life – whether she is a home-maker, a business woman, or a prime minister – will be seen in an entirely new light, and the conflicts between women and men over the status of women can begin to be resolved.
Join us, as F.R.E.E. women…. Buying our products makes a direct investment in the lives of the women who made them.
Our Founder
Dawn Close moved to southern Africa in 1984 and has been living or involved in the region ever since. FREE was founded in 2010 as part of her coursework while studying for a master in International Development at the University of Pittsburgh. While studying at Pitt she discovered the concept of value addition, a simple but overlooked principle that in order to benefit its people, products should be developed from a nation’s natural resources rather than exporting them in rough form. Value addition is at the heart of F.R.E.E.’s product development.
Dawn Close
Founder
Address in Zambia
P/Bag E891 Box 376, Lusaka, Zambia
Address in USA
PO Box 2232, Cranberry Twp., PA 16066 USA
Email
office@free-zambia.org