Threads for Hope provides alternatives to human sex trafficking
The Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship at Central Michigan University is fighting against the severe poverty rate in the Philippines one thread at a time.
Threads for Hope is a livelihood project set in the Philippines. It offers an alternative source of income to families who would otherwise sell their children to prostitution and various forms of human trafficking.
Founded in 2003, Threads for Hope provides women and children with the materials to produce handcrafted bracelets, lanyards and necklaces. After being made, the jewelry are sold either directly through the project’s representatives or separate organizations.
“As we’re sitting here selling these bracelets, it doesn’t seem like we’re having that big of an impact on kids in the Philippines while actually it really does,” South Haven sophomore Hailey Conklin said. “All the money going to (families) is keeping (children) out of sex slavery. This little bit of income is helping them so much. I can’t actually be down there helping, but we can be selling bracelets here and be doing here what we can do to help them.”
As a Registered Student Organization on campus, Chi Alpha’s proceeds are split through Threads for Hope. Half of the revenue goes to the project while the other is spent on a fundraiser of the organization’s choice.
Jacob Oebel, Chi Alpha director and supervisor of Mid-Michigan Chi Alpha chapters, discovered Threads for Hope while attending the Unity Christian Music Festival in Muskegon.
The group became formally associated with the Threads for Hope in January 2015 after attending the national Chi Alpha student training conference, SALT. Oebel had been reintroduced with the project at the conference.
Soon after, Chi Alpha members had the opportunity to either sell individually.
During the 2015-16 academic year, Chi Alpha used their half of the earnings to raise money for the Shoe Project through Mount Pleasant’s Thrive Church.
Originating at Shepherd Elementary School, the Shoe Project is a local charity which gives shoes to elementary school students in Isabella County.
“The shoe project worked to buy local elementary school children a brand new pair of Adidas shoes,” said Jasmin Maluchnik, Mount Pleasant senior and Chi Alpha president. “We helped buy more than 80 pairs of shoes through our Threads of Hope sales alone. This year we are using the money to help send students to our World Missions Summit in Dallas, Texas.”
Oebel said Chi Alpha’s World Summit will host an estimated 6,000 students along with 200 missionaries and humanitarian and non-profit organizations.
“It doesn’t even seem that we’re doing a lot of work here because the cool thing about Threads for Hope is that it isn’t just a thing for charity but it’s also a fundraiser for us so it’s double-sided,” said Jordyn Anklam, a Midland junior and Chi Alpha Treasurer. “It’s really the best of a ‘win-win’ situation.”
In return to selling Threads for Hope products, whether it be independently or through an official Chi Alpha table, students receive financial credit for the summit.
“You’re living missionary without really having to put any effort into it,” Maluchnik said. “It’s a lot easier, more natural, and even though we’re not seeing the immediate effects of it, we know what good it’s doing.”
Chi Alpha tables rotate daily through the Towers Residence Halls lobby, outside Fresh Food Company, the Bovee University Center and Merrill Dining Hall. The group have also sold at the Mount Pleasant WalMart and Thrive Church.
The tables have earned proceeds succeeding more than $150.
“We just try to roam and rotate around campus. The thing we actually found out overtime was once we hit one location our first day, there is usually really good sales while everyday after that is really low," Oebel said. "We try to move around campus so that way we interact with more students. We then just basically ask for our students to sign up to volunteer and work there.”
Back in the Philippines, family members employed by Threads for Hope earn an hourly wage of 25 cents, Anklam said.
“It seems so minor to us, 25 cents. You spend four times that just getting a snack from the vending machine, but 25 cents an hour is all they need to make a better life for themselves,” Anklam said. “For 25 cents why wouldn’t you try to make a difference in somebody else’s life?”
The low pay prevents many families from being able to afford to feed their children, Oebel said, forcing the parents to sell their children into prostitution in order to afford to feed the rest of the family.
Threads for Hope supports more than 300 Philippine families directly, providing work and — through their associated missionaries — advancements in public health, education and community development.
Through their partnership with Thrives for Hope, Chi Alpha feeds their desire to brand themselves with the mentality “that it’s about other people”.
“It’s not just about us,” Oebel said. “We didn’t want to be just any other religious group on campus. We wanted to be more actions than just words. To us it’s really just about other people. It’s about our fellow CMU students, it’s about people surrounding CMU and it’s about impacting people and the world.”
Working with Threads for Hope is also about providing hope and humility to the students that sell them. Families are given not just an income but a sort of “purpose” within their community.
“Many times we hear in classes that after you graduate, you’ll be able to go and get a job and you hear about the American Dream and privilege and things like that,” Anklam said. “But what we’re doing through this organization is really counter-culture to that. We don’t want to graduate and just have a nice car, a nice house and a picture perfect family. We want to go to the nitty gritty places and do work like this. It’s providing a purpose in us too.”
Round Bracelets are sold for $2 a piece while flat bracelets, lanyards and necklaces can be purchased at $4 each or three for $10.
Share:
