Sunday, February 16, 2014

The Gift of Electricity

Since the inception of Journeys of the Heart we have had many consistently generous donors.

Some of our donors designate their funds towards specific projects, others leave the distribution up to Journeys who decide where there is the greatest need.

Two supporters have always chosen Reaching Out to receive their annual gifts. Through the years they have:

  • sponsored many trainees through their initial skills training and longer term staff in Leadership Skills, sign language or salesmanship 
  • high intensity lamps for the women doing stitchery
  • looms for the weavers
Last year their gifts bought a portable generator! 




The Reaching Out family is very excited about their generator! Not only can they stay open in the retail shop during power outages, but they also can continue production in the workshop with power for the  metal work and jewellery making and of course those high intensity lamps for the sewers.

How often does the electricity go off and why? Here is one reason!




  

Tourists find these "rat's nests" of service lines so amusing that there are T-shirts available with graphics depicting the snarls! But of course if you are trying to run a business and are concerned about the safety of your workers it is not so funny!

Another reason, especially in Hoi An is simply that generation and supply can not keep up with the demand and often there are planned outages (sometimes even announced!) to conserve.

As you can imagine, the gift of a generator allows the team at Reaching Out to continue the production and sale of their beautiful crafts to ensure a steady income for these hard working and lovely people.




Thank You to our donors who have helped to keep Reaching Out running during blackouts!