On their website, Wings of Refuge quote James 1:27: “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” This verse sums up the mission of Wings of Refuge, an organization dedicated to the care of widows and orphans in Africa.

Wings of Refuge have funded their Orphanage Project through a series of collaborations. The main partnership is with Voices for Global Change through their Paper to Pearls Project. The Paper to Pearls Project teaches refugee widows in Uganda how to make beads out of paper and sell them to support themselves and their families. Beads might not seem like a business big enough to support families, but women who have gone through the program have been able to send their children back to school and also afford medicine, food, and land for a new home.

Wings of Refuge buy beads from women in the Paper to Pearls Project, and they make jewelry from the beads as well as bones, wood, pearls, and shells which can be purchased through the Wings of Refuge website. Proceeds from the jewelry then go to Wings of Refuge’s Orphanage Project. The Orphanage Project targets orphanages in rural Tanzania and is working on providing these orphanages with new facilities, schools, and sustainable farms.

To read more about Wings of Refuge and the Orphanage Project, check out their website at http://www.wingsofrefugefoundation.org, and support their work by purchasing jewelry at http://www.wingsofrefugefoundation.org/jewelry_project.php.