New Braunfels Edition | May 2022

NONPROFIT

Handspun Hope employs women in northern Rwanda to hand-spin and dye yarn that is used to create items available for purchase online or in store. Here is a look at the process used to make the yarn. WITH PURPOSE WO V E N

GROW:

Rwandan employees weave organic wool into yarn.

Handspun Hope’s farm in Rwanda is home to a ock of merino sheep.

COURTESY HANDSPUN HOPE

WASH:

After shearing, the wool is washed, cleaned and combed by hand.

SPIN:

Wool is fed into a spinning wheel and transformed into single-ply yarn. Two single-ply yarns are then reverse fed back through the wheel to create two-ply yarn.

DYE:

Van Gill, Diana Wiley and Carly Oosten are key sta at Handspun Hope.

The yarn is sold directly to consumers to create knitwear.

Yarn is colored using organic dyes made from locally collected vegetation like avocado pits and eucalyptus bark.

LAUREN CANTERBERRYCOMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

HandspunHope Nonprot provides women in Rwanda with sustainable employment I n 2007, Diana Wiley founded Handspun Hope in northern Rwanda after spending ve sustainable employment and support are integral in building strong communities, Oosten said. “Once women are empowered BY LAUREN CANTERBERRY

KNIT:

Local women create custom pieces using Handspun Hope’s yarn.

DELIVER:

HandspunHope 647 S. Seguin Ave., New Braunfels www.handspunhope.org The showroom is open Monday-Friday from 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Finished pieces and yarn are imported and sold in the U.S. online and in person throughout the country. Proceeds benet the women. The process from wool growth to knitting takes approximately eight months.

employed by the organization. The nonprot organization now partners with churches, organiza- tions and leadership in northern Rwanda to provide more than 200 women with sustainable employ- ment, community and spiritual counsel. More than 500 individuals receive education, health care, nutrition and housing through the organization. Handspun Hope owns a sheep farm in Rwanda where local women create yarn with organic wool and dyes and have access to support resources, nancial training and more, Director of Operations Carly Oosten said. Research conducted in surround- ing regions suggests that access to

years working with Christian ministries and organizations to equip a hospital in Mozambique. “[I] really felt called to be working where nobody was working and really felt specically called to Rwanda,” Wiley said. Initially, Wiley planned to build homes for women who had been aected by the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, and she raised money to build 10 homes for local women. But Wiley’s focus soon shifted to providing women with ways to earn a consistent income by creating natural yarn made completely by women

and they thrive, whole communities thrive,” Oosten said. “So from this oce, we help kind of oversee and guide our Rwandan team. They’re entirely Rwandan-led there on the ground, but we help kind of guide and oversee that as well as produc- tion needs for all of our dierent wholesale customers.” In addition to operating the farm, Handspun Hope hosts lay counselor training for local leaders to learn how to oer trauma counseling to members of their community. Since 2013, more than 200 individuals have received counseling training.

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