Bali Life women's silversmith training project

The greatest ways we can help to stop children from begging on the streets is through empowering the children and their parents through education and work opportunities. This is where Bali Life Street Kids and Women's Centre comes in.  Run by Lyna and Piter, the centre  hosts the Women’s Workshop - a place the women can come and make products to earn an income.

Every day a woman can work is a day her children don’t have to go beg on the streets. The women in the workshop currently create products such macrame, crochet bags, baskets, stuffed dolls - all made from recycled materials. The women are keen to learn new skills and it is vital that they do this to increase their economic potential.

After volunteering at the Bali life centre for several weeks, I had the idea that we train the mothers at the center to be silversmiths.  As an owner of a Jewellery business, AMAI Jewellery and with a background in social work, I was surprised to discover that despite a strong silversmith tradition in Bali, there are very few female silversmiths.  I found that  woman often only  polish and finish pieces. After talking with my friend who is a trained silversmith and also has an interest in social issues, we agreed this would be a great project to steer together. 

After meeting with the lovely manager Lyna  and discussing the idea with the women several times, we all agreed this was a great idea! Not only does Bali need more female silversmiths but this is an amazing skill the women can have for life and hopefully use to support their families.

We absolutely love this foundation as it's about empowerment and giving these women skills to improve their lives. For more information, visit http://www.balilife.org/ 

What will your donation cover?

The main costs involved in setting up this project will be tools - the women will require several sets of hand tools, as well as a couple of larger items which will be shared, such as a torch, rolling mill and polishing machine. The workshop space will also need to be redesigned to provide adequate space for the tools and work benches. We will need to setup a protected soldering station away from where the children can access. As well as this, a teacher will come to the centre twice a week for 6 weeks in order to teach the women basic silversmithing and support them as they start to design their first pieces. We will also provide them with enough silver to cover their production.