Public Service In Review:
The Art of International Development
Many of the poorest countries in the world are
brimming with talented artists and rich cultural
traditions. But in the face of extreme poverty and civil wars, the preservation of artistic traditions is rarely a top priority. Connecting artists to international markets hungry for quality and innovation is an increasingly popular model for a new generation of nongovernmental organizations. The Turquoise Mountain Foundation and Emerge are just two examples.
The Turquoise Mountain Foundation is working to rebuild the historic Murad Khane commercial center of Kabul, Afghanistan. Decades of war and neglect destroyed many of Kabul's public spaces, so Turquoise Mountain is restoring historic buildings and constructing a new bazaar and galleries for traditional craft businesses. Turquoise Mountain's Centre for Traditional Afghan and Islamic Arts and Architecture has established schools in woodwork, ceramics and calligraphy. Other programs aim to market Afghan crafts to international markets and assist rural craft communities throughout Afghanistan. Turquoise Mountain provides something Afghans need alongside skills and economic opportunity: a renewed sense of pride in their national culture.
Another trend-setter is Emerge, a nonprofit
organization that uses jewelry to improve lives at Ma Sevana, a home for abandoned, sexually abused teenage mothers in Sri Lanka. MIT undergrad Alia Whitney-Johnson was in Sri Lanka doing tsunami relief work in 2005 when she met the girls of Ma Sevana, many of whom are younger than 14. Alia taught jewelry-making classes that gave the girls a marketable skill and a new sense of self-worth. Whitney-Johnson said, "They went from needing approval for every single bead to each having her own aesthetic style." With the support of a World Bank grant to develop its programs, Emerge has sold jewelry in Sri Lankan stores and will soon market through HandPicked, an American jewelry retail chain.
www.turquoisemountain.org
www.emergeglobal.org |
