Over 17,000 nets!!

Thank you for helping us "Fight the Bite!"

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Ghana medical missions 2008-2010

David & Phyllis, Medical Clinic at MPM in 2008

David examining patient, 2009

Patients waiting to be treated, 2009

Phyllis at medical clinic, 2009

Praying for patients, 2009

Concern over the great needs, 2009

David speaking to a family about health concerns, 2009
  
Dr. Morris, 2010 Ghana clinic


Phyllis and David sorting meds, 2010

 
Dr. David Morris, 2010 Ghana clinic




Wednesday, October 20, 2010

How recycled glass beads are made

This is a short video of the process of grinding, firing, adding pigment, refiring, and polishing the beautiful recycled glass beads that are found in many of the Kairos 10 designs.

Phyllis Morris, co-founder of Kairos 10, visited the Cedi Bead Industry in Ghana during her last trip to the country in late-September. The Industry is owned and operated by "Mr. Cedi", as he is known. (His given name is Nomoda Ebenizer Djaba.) Mr. Cedi's designs are well-known and sought after by beaders.

During her visit, Phyllis was given a tour of the Industry and purchased several different styles of beads, including various colors, the new "star bead" and some more elaborate designs that are striped or multi-colored.

Enjoy the video!

Saturday, October 9, 2010

17 Original Designs posted in gallery!

Kairos 10 has just posted 17 original designs in the online gallery! Many designs are made with the recycled glass beads from the Cedi factory, including red glass, blue glass, white glass, and others. In addition most designs, including the two Christmas beads styles (both Old Ghanaian and new Christmas beads) are made with beautiful Swarovski crystals. Two of the 17 designs were created with rare beads from the Ashanti region.

As you are browsing the online gallery, you will find a brief description as well as an item number attached to each bracelet. (Please be sure to include the item number when you are ordering.) Each bracelet is $35 which includes tax, and comes packaged in a beautiful drawstring bag made from native Ghanaian material. (Shipping is $6.95 for up to 3 bracelets.)

Enjoy shopping for yourself, or for gifts for the holiday season! Thank you so much for your purchase. You are not only purchasing a beautiful, handcrafted original piece, but also providing sustainable income to the artisan, as well as a mosquito net to a family in a poverty-stricken village.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Bead Tour of Ghana

Phyllis returned from a recent trip to Ghana to buy more beads and to train the women who are now the main artisans for the bracelets. There is a team of five Ghanaian women who are hand-creating the beautiful designs. They worked tirelessly the entire week, and Phyllis was able to bring home 240 designs including the original design silver wrap bracelets, others made with antique Christmas beads, as well as other new designs.

While on her bead tour, Phyllis visited the Cedi bead industry and was given a tour of the factory by Mr. Cedi, himself. The Cedi bead industry is the largest producer of recycled glass beads in Ghana and his designs are renowned in the US and around the world.

At the end of the week, the jewelry artisans were exhausted, but so thankful to have produced so many bracelets! The women were blessed by their work, and with their earnings even expressed a desire to help other women in need in their country. What an incredible journey we are embarking on! God has already richly blessed this ministry and it is only the beginning!


How it all began...

Kairos Jewelry seeks to provide sustainable income and preventative medical care for those living below the international poverty line in Ghana, West Africa. In 2008 on their first trip to Ghana, Phyllis and David Morris, DO founders of Kairos and both medical professionals, became deeply burdened by the needs of the children and families that they treated in medical clinics in the bush villages. The following year, close friends of the Morris' and co-founders, Charlie and Katheryn Pennington, joined the Morris' in Ghana and their hearts were moved as well. Both the Morris' and the Penningtons returned from the second trip to Ghana, longing to make a lasting impact on the people of Ghana and to give hope and a future to the villages they visited.
Most of the children that Dr. and Mrs. Morris treated during the clinics were suffering from symptoms of malaria, a disease caused by and transmitted through infected mosquitos. Malaria is the leading cause of death for children under the age of 5. According to UNICEF, in 2008, the rate of mortality for children under 5 was around 76,000, with the percentage under-five with fever receiving anti-malarial drugs around 43%. To date there is no known cure for malaria, so the only hope to conquer the disease is through prevention.
In 2010, Phyllis made her third trip to Ghana. She visited local markets and purchased some beautiful glass beads with the intention of making jewelry for herself and some close friends. As she began making bracelets, her heart returned to the needs she had seen over the last three years, and she began to dream. Could this jewelry be used to somehow bridge the thousands of miles separating her from the healing and hope she longed to give to the precious children of Ghana? To Phyllis and to some close friends that had also traveled to Ghana, it was clear. This was “kairos”, meaning “the right or opportune moment…in which something special happens.”
The result of that dream is more than just a beautiful, handcrafted piece of jewelry. It is a “right moment” for a sustainable industry in a poverty-stricken country where more than 30% of the population lives on less than a $1/day. Through a unique partnership, native Ghanian women will produce the handcrafted jewelry and in return receive sustainable employment and a wage that is more than double what they would be earning in another similar industry.
In addition, it is the “right moment” to be fighting a disease that is claiming too many young lives in Africa. For each bracelet purchased, a mosquito net will be given to a family or individual in Ghana to help fight the spread of malaria. The only hope to defeat malaria is prevention, and sleeping under an ITN is the most effective way to fight the spread of the disease.
Each bracelet is uniquely hand-crafted with beads from various regions in Ghana, and is an original design. Thank you for your purchase and your belief that it is the “right moment” to fight poverty and disease in Africa.