Amber Chand put together her online gift business with the goal of placing a spotlight on struggling women living in regions ravaged by war.
She only chose items for her company, the Amber Chand Collection, that were made by women recovering from or living in nightmarish conditions. All her products, she said, deliver a message of "peace," "hope" or "reconciliation."
Her first offering was the Candle of Hope, a joint venture between Israeli and Palestinian women. It combined the embroidering and sewing expertise of Arab females in Bethlehem with the candle-making acumen of Israelis living in the hills of Nazareth.
The Israelis produced the candle ($36), which is made of beeswax and is mixed with dried olive leaves; the Palestinians created a decorative hand-sewn sack that comes packaged with the candle.
The craftswomen, who are on opposite sides of a giant political divide, have never met each other. "Both groups are prohibited from crossing the check points into the West Bank," said Chand, who lives in Williamstown, Mass. in the Berkshires. "The embroidered bags are trucked into Bethlehem and then driven to Nazareth."
The sale of 10 bags can support a Palestinian family of four for one day, she said. The candle is made by Russian women who recently moved to Israel and would be unemployed if not for this joint venture.
More than 6,000 candles have sold. "But I want to sell thousands (more) of them," she said. "The women are waiting for orders."
As Mother's Day (May 13) approaches, Chand said that she is hoping sons and daughters will consider giving their mothers one of the seven products in her collection. She wants the word to get out that sales of each of her products have a direct impact on lives in troubled areas of the world.
She noted, "We want to celebrate, support and honor these courageous women who make objects of beauty."
Other products in the collection include a woven beaded cuff bracelet ($25) and an eight-strand necklace ($38) created by women whose sons and husbands were killed during Guatemala's civil war, which ended in the mid-1990s. Ten percent of the proceeds go to an educational scholarship fund for Guatemalan children.
She also has limited numbers of lidded baskets (for $65) of woven palm grass from war-torn Darfur. She noted, "because of the situation there, it's difficult to get a regular supply. Each time I get some of these baskets in, they sell out."
Chand's other offerings are silk purses ($45) made by female victims of sex trafficking and prostitution in Phnom Penh, and hand-carved fluorite necklaces ($72) and bracelets ($48) by Afghani widows in Kabul. Chand said that she donates 5 percent of the sales of the jewelry from Kabul to Women for Women International, which offers support to females in war-torn countries.
"What I've done is take social principles and combine them with business practices in hopes of making a lasting impact," Chand said. "Through these feminine collaborations, we are building bridges and delivering a vision of peace."
The inspiration for Chand's 15-month-old company was Rwandan women basket makers. Following the brutal 100-day genocide in 1994, the African nation emerged with a population that was 70 percent female, she said. To survive, the women on both sides of conflict came together and started making baskets.
Eventually, a partnership was forged with Macy's, which sells the Rwandan Peace Basket. There are eight different styles, costing between $35 and $100. You can buy them online at www.macys.com (once at the Web site do a search on "Rwanda baskets"); or they are available at the company's stores in Herald Square, New York City, Lenox Square, Atlanta, and State Street, Chicago.
"When I heard the story of these Hutu and Tutsi women coming together, I was so moved," she said. "What an image of peace and reconciliation, and all of it through women's hands."
Chand said that she is no stranger to the life of a refugee. She was one at the age of 21.
Her family was ordered to leave Uganda in the early 1970s along with "all the other people of Asian descent who lived there," she noted. "I remember it was announced on the radio one day that we are all to leave." Chand, a Hindu whose family hails from India, moved to London.
"I am building a company deeply steeped in a social cause," she said. "I want these women to know that they are not forgotten and that they have so much to contribute." By buying one gift from the collection, she said, you are making a difference too.
- FAYE B. ZUCKERMAN