Supporting women and the conservation of endangered species around the world

World Women Work is delighted to announce a new partnership with friend and Interior Designer, Kathryn Schumacher. Following her recent trip to Africa with Singer, Kathryn was inspired to create pillows from indigenous fabrics exclusively for WWW.

Kathryn Schumacher Designs grew out of Kathryn’s twenty-three years as an Interior Designer with projects in California, New Mexico, New York, Washington, Florida and Illinois.  She loves color, textiles, patterns, artistic detail and travel, all of which provide inspiration for her decorative pillow collections.

Kathryn has been friends with Singer for over 15 years and jumped at the recent opportunity to travel with Singer to her beloved Africa.  As a result of this trip Kathryn was inspired to create a selection of beautiful African oriented pillows exclusively for WorldWomenWork. Kathryn was struck by their vivacious spirit and the pride with which they wore their brightly colored and patterned clothing. “It was a life-changing trip,” Kathryn said. “We realized that, for people like us with so much, how little it takes to change other lives for the better.”

We are thrilled with this wonderful collaboration and delighted that we can participate in the debut of Kathryn’s stunning new Africa collection. The African pillows debut for sale this month at the WorldWomenWork website (www.worldwomenwork.org) and at www.kathrynschumacher.com.

All the designs are individual one-offs – check them out – and tell your friends!

This was WorldWomenWork’s first trip to Botswana and Zambia arranged by Explore for 10 people. It was a beautiful mix of animals and people. We drove from Lusaka to the Lower Zambezi which was an education in itself. The road narrow and full of pot holes  used by  many trucks going to mines  is a true mess but worth experiencing to get the full flavor of what  is going on!

We stopped at the Riverside School for lunch and to see where WWW scholarship students  have attended tailoring and organic farming school.

It is an incredibly well run school.

From there we went on to the fish farm which is spectacular – 3 ponds holding 9000 fish each.  Stanley, the founder, is an amazing guy. The ladies caught fish for our dinner. We met with Isaiah who coordinates all the local projects. What a man!

We visited the clinic and school in Chiawa. It was decided on the spot by my group at the school to refurbish the girls dormitory.  Mattresses on the floor are all they have and a toilet somewhere behind the occasional bush. We are funding new double decker beds, glass in the windows and a new toilet building. The girls will paint the inside and out. I won’t go into any more detail since we were updated in great detail at the board meeting. We were highly impressed by all the projects.

You come away after meeting  the people involved  with such admiration for everything they do. I feel it is so important to make people realize who have so much what little it takes to change peoples lives.

Cherri and Richard you are amazing. And to top everything as we were approaching shore at your camp for drinks there appear a family of elephants with babies coming down to drink.