Rangina and Stoorai with their father, Ghulam Haider Hamidi.

When Rangina Hamidi launched Kandahar Treasure, an Afghan women’s artists’ collective in 2003, now in its sixth season at the International Folk Art Market, she had no idea just how far-reaching its benefits would be. “The women inspired me. In the midst of three decades of violence, they were silently continuing their tradition of creating beautiful embroidery while never expecting anything to come of it,” says Rangina, of the intricate textiles, called Khamak, which have been used for centuries in bridal trousseaus and as decoration for men’s tunics.

What has come of it, however, are dramatic social, cultural and financial changes in the everyday lives of the nearly 400 artists and their families. One embroiderer used to be homeless, squatting in a roofless room with her six daughters, can now afford to rent a three-bedroom apartment with a small courtyard. More remarkable still, she was able to delay marriage for her eldest daughter, also a skilled embroiderer and a competent wage earner, until her early 20s, instead of her early teens, the typical age when Afghan girls are married. Another, who was shy and timid and would always cover her face, is now a supervisor at the for-profit organization and has gained the trust and respect of her brothers—a major break from tradition in this conservative, male-dominated culture. Says Rangina, “Women in Kandahar don’t see much of the outside world, which is so full of violence, as we speak.”

In July 2011, the violence hit home, when Rangina’s father, Ghulam Haidar Hamidi, the mayor of Kandahar and a close ally President Hamid Karzai, was killed in a suicide attack. Her family and friends begged her to move to the United States, where she’d been raised since age 11. “I was ready to give up,” Rangina says, choking up at the memory, “but I realized that quitting would be selfish. My father sacrificed himself for his country. I decided I couldn’t leave people behind.” Instead, she spent five months restructuring Kandahar Treasure so that the artists now manage their own work with very little supervision from her. She travels to Afghanistan several times a year and fields phone calls from her home in Virginia. Says Rangina, who hopes one day to be able to bring some of the Khamak artists to Market with her, “I want the women to know that I haven’t given up on them.”

—Katie Arnold

Award-winning travel writer, Arnold’s stories have appeared in Travel & Leisure, The New York Times and Sunset among other publications. She also writes a Raising Rippers column for OutsideOnline.com.

Beth Charlesworth produced this short video featuring Kandahar Treasure and Rangina’s sister story.

If you didn’t see Anne Constable’s excellent story on Kandahar Treasure, click here.

Mouhou Boussine is a weaver from a small village in the sub-Saharan desert plateaus of Morocco’s Valley of the Roses.

The local fields are fed by a river year round and Mouhou works hard farming roses, walnuts, pomegranates, peaches and figs. She also gathers firewood, cooks for her family and manages to find time to weave, and work as the president of the local weaving association.

The association is known as Jamaiate Assif or River Association, after the river that sustains the area – as well as irrigating their fields, the villagers use the river to feed and water the livestock which produce the fibers used in the carpets they weave.

Mouhou cannot read or write, but she is passing her skills down to others in the village and to the nearby nomads who still live in caves. She teaches women how to weave on the new metal looms provided by the government, and how to spin yarn by hand, a skill which is being lost by the younger generation.

Weaving is laborious – it starts with washing the wool in the river under the hot sun, then use natural dyes from plants harvested from the fields. Each carpet takes several months to create, starting with the gathering of recycled materials, then hand spinning wool, and finally weaving the carpet on a vertical wooden loom.

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Photo: David Evans

Market Artist Rebecca Lolosoli is Featured in Nicholas Kristof’s Documentary, Half the Sky

It’s hard to miss Rebecca Lolosoli’s wide, generous smile and the vivid jewelry that covers her like a rainbow. And once you know her story, you’ll never forget her. The beautiful beaded rings, bracelets, necklaces, belts, and headpieces that Lolosoli brings to the Market are made by the semi-nomadic, pastoral Samburu people of northern Kenya, whose women are among the most marginalized groups in the country.

Having escaped her own dangerous domestic situation, Lolosoli founded a village for abused and homeless women. Today Umoja (“unity” in Swahili) is a safe haven where women are educated on issues such as domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, and forced female genital mutilation, and given the opportunity to create sustainable livelihoods. This will be Lolosoli’s fourth year at the Market. As in past years, she will take all of the cooperative’s proceeds from the Market back to her community, where these funds are essential to Umoja’s survival. Rebecca also takes home the knowledge that the Market goers and the Market staff are behind Umoja.

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As Mothers’ Day approaches, we thought we’d feature Famjoy Sehli from the Luang Prabang Fund for Culture and Conservation in Lao PDR –  one of the first-time artists who’ll be attending the Market this year.

This year, you can give a gift in honor of one of the women in your life and celebrate with this personalized Mother’s Day e-card featuring embroidery by Famjoy. Click here to make your donation and send a heartfelt Mother’s Day message supporting women around the wold.

We know mothers around the world work hard to make the world a better place for their families and communities, and Famjoy exemplifies this. The special hats and carriers Famjoy and her artisans make for their babies are just one sign of how much they value and honor their children.

Famjoy was born in Sai Lek village in Luang Namtha province, and is a member of the Yao Mien ethnic group.

Laos is home to 49 officially recognized ethnic minority groups, making up 55% of the population, and is one of the world’s least developed nations.

Ethnic minority people living in rural areas (and women in particular) are the poorest sector of the country.

Famjoy learned to embroider from her grandmother as a child, and she has now become a leader in her community in handicrafts, producing work of the highest quality.

With the help of training from NGOs, she uses her business sense and organizational skills to help women artisans to sell across the border in Thailand and in other parts of Laos.

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Mary Padar Kuojok, South Sudan, 2012 Market Artist

Master beader Mary Padar Kuojok is coming to the Folk Art Market this summer to represent the Roots Project from Juba, South Sudan. The Republic of South Sudan became the world’s newest nation state when it declared independence on July 9, 2011. After years of war, education, job skills, and employment opportunities are lacking in South Sudan for the majority of the population, especially women.

Mary Padar, from the Dinka tribe, will make the long journey to Santa Fe this July. She was a young child when war broke out, and vividly remembers the displacement of her family. She has lived most of her life surrounded by war, raising 11 children, three of whom have died. For many years she worked as a cook for the Sudan People’s Liberation Army until 2010 when she was finally free to move.

After moving to Juba, Mary Padar joined the Roots Project, an organization that creates opportunities for economic self-sufficiency for the many disadvantaged women affected by war. Founder and human rights activist Anyieth D’Awol believed that South Sudan’s unique cultural history should be preserved to help forge a cohesive national identity. The project has grown since 2009 to employ over 60 women and men from 16 different tribal groups.

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Haitian metalwork artist and frequent attendee at the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market Michée Ramil Remy passed away on March 11, 2012 at the age of 41 from deteriorating health conditions.

Michée had a determined ambition to succeed as an artist, the resilience to overcome hardships in Haiti, and the creative talent to transform recycled metal into wonderful mythological and commonplace imagery of mermaids, whimsical birds, and nature.

Born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti on June 26, 1970, Michée began learning the basics of preparing drums as a teenager from his step-father, well-known steel drum sculptor Gabriel Bien-Aimé.

Michée had his own shop, employed numerous apprentices and workers, and had his work represented at various stores, galleries and festivals in the US and the Caribbean.

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