Make Hope Real
The Polyhope Collection is a line of costume jewelry hand-crafted by teenage artisans from Hope Village, a children's home in Cambodia for 80 orphans and needy children. The project was started in 2017 to help teenagers save a minimum of USD450 before they leave the home at 18 years old. This savings is vital to help the teenagers pay for their living expenses outside the home until they find a job.
Every piece of jewelry in the Polyhope collection is uniquely yours. No polyclay bead is exactly the same. Because it is handmade. The teenage artisans spend 6 to 8 hours per week during their leisure time to craft. With your empowerment, they can become artisans of hope.
Scaling Up The Project To Other Needy Communities
With our experience and tools developed from the pilot project, we are ready to train artisans from other needy communities. Then we can start to market the jewelry internationally and provide stable jobs for these communities.
POLYMER CLAY BEADS
Every bead or pendant is hand-made with polymer clay. They may look similar but not identical. Every piece is unique, like each one of us. The process of making the beads and pendants involves many steps of kneading, rolling, shaping and cutting the different colours of clay. Coloured pieces of clay are then joined together to form patterns and then baked. After baking, the polymer beads and pendants are then crafted into necklaces and earrings.
PROJECT PARTNER
Our pilot project partner is Operations Hope Foundation (OHF). OHF was founded by Mr Robert Kee, business man from Singapore. Twenty-four years ago, Robert was deeply moved by “Inside Asia”, a television program on child prostitution in Cambodia, and felt the calling to help the orphans and the poor of Cambodia.
He founded OHF in 2001 with the vision of helping the poor in developing countries. Today, OHF runs two Children’s Homes in Cambodia and Nepal to provide a safe refuge for the children to happily and healthily grow up in. In order to break out of their poverty cycle, they believe skills training programs will equip rural youths with relevant skills to ensure that they can look forward to a better future. The program objectives include learning the English language to conduct simple business transactions, computer skills to design brochures and other marketing collaterals, and a positive attitude to plan for the future. OHF also runs Community Development projects to build housing, water and sanitation facilities for rural villagers.
Hope Village Prey Veng
