Dear Friends in Jewelry,
I’m writing to you on a important issue and I hope this amazing group
of international jewelry industry professionals may provide some
leads. Recently, I have teamed up with a not-for-profit organization
“Made By Survivors” (madebysurvivors.com and Facebook fan page of the
same name) who provide skill training for survivors of human
trafficking and slavery. This gives the survivors the ability to have
a life making fair-trade wares and prevent them from ending up in
brothels or becoming re-enslaved. I have been selected as the jeweler
to travel to Kolkata, India, to teach these survivors some basic
metalsmithing skills and help launch their jewelry training program.
A huge obstacle to the program is finding local, Indian tool
suppliers and a casting company in India (so far everything has been
shipped from the USA, the organization’s home location) so we can
make purchases locally. There are a handful of lay people (to
'smithing) who have been working on the project for 6 months who have
been unsuccessful in sourcing suppliers and casters. I just joined
the project but leave in about a month or so. I was hoping someone out
there may have a lead or suggestions for us for this amazing cause.
As an aside, I just wanted to thank you all so much for making this
community so helpful for folks like myself (been lurking yeesh, for
years now), sans mentor; it has been such an amazing resource for me
as I’ve started out in the jewelry business recently. I’ve learned so
much form you all. Thanks so much for you time and consideration.
Please feel free to contact me with anything regarding this program
you think I may find useful!
Kind regards,
Dianna Badalament
Dianna B Designs