Building Hope for the Earth One Bracelet at a Time

SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO--Earth's Birthday Project, a nonprofit organization that educates children about the Earth and its resources, this week placed a windfall order with the Esilalei Women's Cultural Boma, an AWF-supported enterprise located in Tanzania in its Maasai Steppe Heartland. Earth's Birthday Project has commissioned 17,000 handmade "hope bracelets" for use in its educational programs and online store.

Opened in 2007, the Esilalei Women's Cultural Boma celebrates the local Maasai culture and its deep connection to the land. Visitors to the boma can visit traditional homes, watch artisans at work, enjoy traditional dances, and purchase traditional handicrafts. The women of the boma manage everything from making the crafts to running the tourism enterprise. A unique cultural attraction, the Esilalei Boma is helping AWF to protect Manyara Ranch, which sits in a vital wildlife movement corridor between Lake Manyara and Tarangire National Parks.

In addition to benefiting the women of Esilalei, the bracelets will support the Earth's Birthday Project's Big Gift to the Earth Program. Each year, Earth's Birthday Project targets a particular threatened habitat to benefit from a yearlong education and fundraising campaign. A portion of the bracelet sales from this coming year will go to securing the Earth's rainforests.

Since its founding in 1989, more than 15 million children have participated in Earth's Birthday Project's hands-on classroom activities and the Big Gift to the Earth Program.

For more information about the women of Esilalei, click here.

Visit Earth's Birthday Project at www.earthsbirthday.org.