July 31, 2008
Letter from a Chinese student
Below is a letter written to Mai Pearls from another Chinese student who was sponsored last year to continue his studies;
Dear Aunties and Uncles:
How are you? It’s my pleasure to write to you again. Are you well on both health and work fronts? With your help, the financial pressure on my parents have been relieved, so that I can finish my junior school studies. It’s you who give me so much help and provided a solution to my problem of not being able to continue with studies. Being poor had made me look down on myself and even try to give up studying. But you bring me hope; bring me back to school with a full sense of enjoyment. With the study tools given, it has helped me improve in my studies.
From the time I received your help, my grades have improved and I am now more self-confident and believing in my future. In the next one month, I’ll study hard and try to enter the school that I would like to get into.
There’s an old Chinese proverb that says that “If fish is without water, it will die”. I believe that I can conquer all the difficulties I encounter and then taste the sweetness of having overcome these struggles. The road of life is rough and windy that you wouldn’t know unless you tread that path, I believe now that I can handle the difficulties.
Finally, wish you good health and success at work.
Sincerely yours, Tian Lixing
2008.05.13
Posted: July 31, 2008 08:55 AM
March 06, 2008
Did you know?
For the past two weeks it has been Fairtrade Fortnight?
Fairtrade Fortnight is the annual campaign to raise awareness and promote products carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark. Every year campaigners around the country organise thousands of events such as breakfasts, banquets, fashion shows and football matches – all using or promoting Fairtrade items. By encouraging our communities to make small changes and buy Fairtrade products regularly we can trigger a positive change in the lives of producers.
Fairtrade is a rapidly growing international movement which seeks to guarantee a better deal for farmers and workers in the developing world. A product that is Fairtrade certifies carries a label, the FAIRTRADE Mark.
Although Mai Pearls products do not support the Fairtrade mark, we do aim to bring to the public ethical handmade pearl jewellery. Each piece of jewellery is handmade by a small group of mainland Chinese women. Mai Pearls supports fair trade and local community initiatives. This means that we ensure our suppliers are paid fair wages for their work; working conditions are safe and of a good standard and no children are exploited. Mai Pearls gives 10% of its profits to Operation Blessings, Chinese orphan care program.
Mai Pearls also cares about the environment and we promise to try to minimise excess packaging as well as using items with recycled content. We also use recycle print materials when possible.
For more information on Fairtrade fortnight please click onto this link;
http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/get_involved/fairtrade_fortnight/fairtrade_fortnight_2008/default.aspx
Posted: March 6, 2008 03:46 PM
January 28, 2008
In the Know
Two small groups of Chinese women hand make each piece of Mai Pearls jewellery. Mai Pearls therefore donates 10% off its profits to Operation Blessing’s care programs. These programs are available for China’s needy children, orphans, handicapped children and children suffering from various diseases.
Whilst in Beijing at the beginning of January, I had the pleasure of visiting Operation Blessing’s head quarters and hearing more about these projects. Operation Blessing have six projects; Healthcare, Surgical Assistance, Clean Water, Education, Disaster Relief and Back to Sound.
Although many children living in poor areas in China are not required to pay for their full tuition, related school and educational costs exceed the ability of many families living in poverty and extreme poverty. Operation Blessing China’s Education Program has assisted thousands of children from 14 provinces with their tuition and related educational costs, helping many who otherwise would never complete a primary and middle school education.
Operation Blessing China also seeks to find ways to help assist the educational needs of children of migrant workers living in China’s cities. For more information www.obchina.org
Posted: January 28, 2008 12:34 PM
January 15, 2008
Happy New Year!
All of Mai Pearls’ jewellery is made by two small groups of Chinese women. As this is the case, Mai Pearls donates 10% off its profits to Operation Blessing’s care programs. These programs are available for China’s needy children, orphans, handicapped children and children suffering from various diseases.
I had the pleasure of visiting Operation Blessing’s head quarters in Beijing at the beginning of this month and hearing more about these projects. Operation Blessing have six projects; Healthcare, Surgical Assistance, Clean Water, Education, Disaster Relief and Back to Sound.
The Surgical Assistance programs provide surgical procedures which result in saving lives, curing diseases, improving the quality of lives, and increasing the likelihood of an orphan being adopted into a family and/or being able to lead an independent and fulfilling life.
Operation Blessing China’s cleft lip/palate surgery program matches donors with orphans and other impoverished children born with cleft lips/palates. Since 2000, they have treated more than 2261 children. The program is currently conducted in the following provinces: Beijing, Xinjiang, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Gansu and Hubei.
In China, approximately 35,000 infants are born with disfiguring cleft lips and/or palates each year. Most are too poor to afford corrective surgery. Without it these children often live life ostracized from society while enduring many health problems. Infants sometimes starve to death because they are unable to nurse. School-age boys and girls don’t attend school because of their humiliation. The disfigurement is sometimes seen as a curse. Marriage is often out of the question. And meanwhile, many are abandoned by their birth parents to languish in an orphanage without hope of adoption.
With very little Operation Blessing can do so much to change these precious youngsters’ lives. In partnership with hospitals, government, corporations, and caring people — they provide free operations to give children living in poverty or an orphan a chance for a better future. A gifted surgeon can erase traces of the deformity with little or no scarring.
Operation Blessing China’s focus on orphans stem from their great need to be cared and loved. Help comes in many forms, such as providing highly nutritive milk formula in several orphan care facilities, improving the orphanages’ facilities, donating gifts, visiting orphans and training the caregivers in their work and care of the orphans, ultimately enabling the orphans to lead a healthy, happy and hopeful life.
Many children become orphans through abandonment because of physical or mental disabilities, abandonment because of finances and social situations, discriminate against females or from disasters. Over 50% of orphans have a physical or mental disability…they not only need to deal with the hardships the diseases cause, they also have to live with the knowledge that their parents abandoned them. Operation Blessing China aims to give these orphans the attention that they deserve by providing life-saving and life-changing surgeries, tuition, room, and board for their special education, as well as other need-based help. It is our goal that they will be able to live a life of fullness and quality as they move to towards independence in adulthood. In many cases, this surgery was just the thing they needed in order to be adopted into a loving family. For others, it was a matter of life or death. www.obchina.org
Posted: January 15, 2008 04:54 PM
November 01, 2007
Ethical Jewellery
In September, I was fortunate enough to attend The Great Debate held at the International Jewellery London 2007 trade show. During the debate, the jewellery industry’s response to the ethical, social and humanitarian issue which confront the jewellery trade today were discussed.
There was an overall feeling that the jewellery industry must address ethical issues. Willie Hamilton, Chairman of the Company of Master Jewellers stated that the jewellery industry is exactly where the food industry was ten years ago, facing what seems an impossible task. He warned jewellers that they must confront and address these issues before they seriously damage the industry.
During the debate, it was suggested that it is the individuals that set out to create a business which can benefit subsistence communities, create employment and encourage fair trading conditions. It is these businesses that have created a niche marketing position of their own in the retail and wholesale jewellery sector.
Mai Pearls are very much aware of it’s responsibility to society and the environment and that is why we have taken three steps to ensure that we are an ethical jewellery brand. These are;
1. Mai Pearls supports fair trade and local community initiatives. This means that we ensure our suppliers are paid fair wages for their work; working conditions are safe and of a good standard and no children are exploited.
2. Mai Pearls gives 10% of it’s profits to Operation Blessing’s Chinese orphan care program. For more information on this charity, please take a look at their website www.obchina.org
3. Mai Pearls also cares about the environment and promises to try to minimise excess packaging as well as using items with recycled content. This is also the case for our printing.
So you can feel good whilst shopping at Mai Pearls!
Posted: November 1, 2007 01:21 PM