O•S•C•A•R© Fida's Pizza Changes Hands - Old Ottawa South

The th MAY 2010 OSCAR - OUR 37 YEAR
Page 25
Helping girls in Lesotho one pearl at a time
By Sara Dubé, Hopewell Avenue
Public School
Can helping young girls in Lesotho develop
their potential really start with a bracelet?
Mary Murphy, founder of Pearls for Girls,
has proven that it can.
In 2006, after hearing about Help Lesotho (www.
helplesotho.ca), an organization aiming to end
extreme poverty in Lesotho, a tiny country
landlocked by South Africa, Mary decided to help
reach that goal by starting a leadership education
program for young girls. Mary knew a woman who
had recently started a business that involved pearls
and this sparked an idea that with the help of friends
became Pearls for Girls.
Over the past three years, Mary has been
providing freshwater pearls to groups of teenage
girls and sometimes boys too, through schools in
Ottawa and other cities across Canada who learn
about leadership, collaboration and contribution
through bracelet making sessions called “pearl
bees”. All profits from the sale of the bracelets go
towards Help Lesotho’s education and leadership
development programs for girls in Lesotho, all who
have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
I am in grade seven at Hopewell Avenue
Public School and have been assigned a project
that involves helping the world in some way, and
documenting the experience. At a celebration of
Help Lesotho’s fifth anniversary in December, I
became interested in Help Lesotho and Pearls for
Girls, so when I heard of the assignment I thought
that this was the perfect opportunity to host my own
“pearl bee”.
I contacted Mary to order pearls and supplies.
A Bracelet That Makes A Difference
She kindly spoke to two students from Nepean High
School who have often volunteered to lead pearl
bees and asked them if they were available to come
to mine. They agreed. Then I asked some friends if
they were interested in helping me make bracelets
for Help Lesotho. When everyone arrived on the
day of the ‘bee’, we sat around the dining room
table and chatted while making bracelets that will
soon make a difference to the lives of girls our age.
I enjoyed “pearling” with my friends and
knowing that our bracelets would help other girls.
It is something you can do with your friends while
expressing your creativity and feeling proud that
your creations will help make someone’s life better.
If you would like to provide your support, you
can visit www.pearls4girls.org to learn more about
the initiative and to order a bracelet. Think about
purchasing one for Mother’s Day, teacher gifts,
birthdays, bridesmaids’ gifts. If you have a shop in
the neighbourhood, and would like to support Pearls
for Girls by displaying and selling the bracelets,
please contact Mary Murphy at pearl@pearls4girls.
org. For just $27.00 you could give the gift of a
bracelet that will help girls become young leaders
in Lesotho.