Vox Partners with Community Cloth for "Refugees at Home" Trimester

Vox Culture looks forward to partnering with Community Cloth for our "Refugees at Home" trimester which will extend from September thru November!

(artwork by Jody Lee)

The Community Cloth is a refugee-led, refugee-owned microenterprise empowering refugee women in Houston that is run under the parent 501(c)3 organization, Our Global Village whose mission is to empower grassroots leaders around the world to improve their communities by providing knowledge, resources and support.

The project grew out of several refugee communities’ informal experiences of selling handmade arts and crafts, such as woven bags, knitted scarves, embroidered linens, rugs and more. Through a series of community meetings held over several months in late 2009, members of the refugee communities voiced a need for expanded and accessible opportunities for refugee women to produce and sell their wares, express their culture and heritage through their crafts, and learn new skills that will assist them in transitioning to life in the US. The biggest request was for seed capital for the women to purchase materials in order to produce their wares and build up their inventory to be sold. The group discussed the idea of offering funding, coupled with training and support, and the Community Cloth was born.

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Our goal is to highlight the unique stories of the refugee artisans and promote their cause through a three-event series under the theme, "Common Threads". More details to come!