|
|
Greetings!
Welcome to the latest issue of the Pal Craftaid newsletter. Exciting things are happening for Pal Craftaid. In this issue, we will be sharing some of them as written by members of the board of directors.
While we have just completed our major sales season for each year in the fall and Advent, we encourage sales at any time of the year. Please be in touch whenever you will need a box of our inventory on consignment.
Since our last newsletter, Pal Craftaid is proud to have received our Fair Trade Federation accreditation. While we have been paying our artisans fairly for many years, this is confirmation of that status.
In March, several members of the Pal Craftaid Board, a couple of spouses and some others will be going to Israel/Palestine to deliver our Knott-DePond campaign check to the Rawdat El-Zuhur School in East Jerusalem. See the article below for more information about our campaign.
If you would like to share in this campaign with Pal Craftaid, your gifts will be appreciated and will be joined with the many others already received.
Grace and Peace,
Carol Hylkema
President, Pal Craftaid Board of Directors
|
|
 Pal Craftaid
Accredited by Fair Trade Federation
Pal Craftaid is now officially designated as a fair trade organization by the Fair Trade Federation (FTF), the association that promotes North American groups whose purchasing and production venues create economic opportunities while protecting the wages of people and the environment. The process took one year.
"We're pleased to welcome Pal Craftaid into our community and to celebrate their work as a fully committed fair trade organization," said Carmen K. Iezzi, the executive director of the FTF in Washington, D.C.
Iezzi said that Pal Craftaid is one of the few - if not the only - member organization that focuses exclusively on meeting the needs of craftspeople in Palestine.
Read more...
|
 |
Help Us Meet Our Goal! |
 Knott-DePond Fund Benefits East Jerusalem School
Pal Craftaid's Board of Directors kicked off a $50,000 fundraising campaign in July 2010 to honor the Rev. Elizabeth "Liz" Knott and Connie DePond for their vision and work that grew into a ministry of hope and help that is Pal Craftaid. The campaign runs through May of 2011. To date we have raised over $20,000 and have $6,000 in pledges.
The funds will be given to the Rawdat El-Zuhur School in East Jerusalem, an institution close to Liz and Connie's hearts. The school has plans to renovate a large multi-purpose room with portable walls so that additional classrooms can be added. For more information about the school go to www.rawdat.org.
If you would like to join us in honoring Liz and Connie please send your donation to Virginia Priest, Treasurer, 3520 N. 30th Street, Tacoma, WA 98407.
Checks should be made payable to Pal Craftaid, memo Knott-DePond Fund. Click here for a downloadable donation form.
|
 | | Ibrahim Giacaman |
Olivewood is This Artist's Medium
Ibrahim Giacaman says it isn't unusual to lose himself in his work, turning a piece of wood slowly over in his hands.
The grain still teases his imagination, although he's been carving for more than 30 years, taught at the hands of his father and grandfather who opened an olive wood factory just off of Bethlehem's Manger Square generations ago.
As a kid, drawing always came easy to him. But for decades now, he's been turning wood into delicate depictions of the Nativity that hang on countless Christmas trees around the world, a loved souvenir of a pilgrimage to the grotto where Jesus was born - just across the street from the family shop, Salem Giacaman Sons.
It is art, yes. But Giacaman knows that for many who buy crosses of all sizes in his shop - pendants for communicants and larger crucifixes that adorn chapels - the olivewood represents more than a tree from the Holy Land. It helps people worship. The crosses and crèches are a tangible reminder that in Bethlehem one night, the distance between heaven and earth was mysteriously inverted and God slipped onto the planet to live amongst mere mortals.
"I just lose myself," says Giacaman, a Catholic. "For hours and hours...I keep working, keep carving until there is something very nice."
 It is a good to have distractions in Bethlehem. The economy collapsed in the aftermath of the Second Intifada in 2000, which launched a prolonged period of Israeli-Palestinian violence that disrupted both societies and wrecked tourism. Bethlehem restaurants went under. Hotels stayed empty. And streams of pilgrims outside the Church of the Nativity dwindled down to a trickle, impoverishing tour guides and the employees of hundreds of gift shops that line the hilly streets of Bethlehem's Old City.
Read more...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
