Vote and help churches in South Africa continue to impact their communities through Paradigm Shift.

http://givingoflife.com/profile/paradigm-shift/

“While working with organizations and leaders from every continent, what has become clear to me is the core human need in any culture for meaning and purpose. Healthy systems demand that people understand what they uniquely bring to the ecosystem of the company. People are more productive when they are working from their gifts, talents, interests, strengths, and passions.

My experience has taught me that when people learn more about themselves, they start to ask those deeper questions: “So what are these gifts for?” “What is my time on the planet about?” Those questions help people come alive, put a sparkle of hope in their eyes, and always have an element of justice. People value themselves more and begin to “show up” in new ways.

At a deep level, we are created to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God, and when are able to do that as part of our day in commerce, sales, or production, we discover a deep and abiding joy.

As David Whyte says, “Work is not a static endpoint or a mere exercise in providing, but a journey and a pilgrimage in which the core elements of our being are tested in the world.””

 
Like many South African communities, Braamfischerville––the community where they live––is plagued with high unemployment. But these five women decided to create work for themselves in order to take care of their families.

 
That dream for a better life became The Soweto Sewing Company.

No stranger to leadership, Judith has been providing for her family since she was 16. As the sole breadwinner, Judith had to make the tough decision to forgo her high school education so the needs of her five siblings could be met.

She started working as a table hand (assistant) at a local sewing factory. She soon worked her way up to seamstress, and then to factory manager. At The Soweto Sewing Company, Judith now oversees six workers making a product line of household and industrial fabric items.

A wife and mother of seven, Judith had advanced sewing skills but lacked the knowledge to effectively manage her business. So, when she heard about the Paradigm Shift program being offered at a local church, she jumped at the opportunity to increase her business skills.

 
For 18 weeks, Judith faithfully attended the Paradigm Shift business training and discipleship program where she learned how to price her products to gain maximum profit. She also learned the principles of marketing her business to increase customers.

Applying these principles, Judith made business cards and flyers for The Soweto Sewing Company. Then, armed with her new marketing materials, she frequented business trade expos to expand her clientele.

 
Her new strategy paid off. At a business expo, Judith met a representative from the Coca-Cola Company.

 
Soon after, the Coca-Cola Company ordered half a million aprons!

 
Her business grew exponentially as a result and the increased work enabled Judith to employ more workers. While all this is certainly reason to rejoice, Judith makes it clear that she is most grateful for her spiritual transformation.
 
“I’m learning every day to be more Christ-like. There is a change in me. I used to be angry all the time, but now I’ve become gentle.”  – Judith

Judith, far right, with her team at the Soweto Sewing Company

]]> http://shiftingparadigms.org/half-a-million-coca-cola-aprons-later/feed/ 0 http://shiftingparadigms.org/paradigm-shift-shop-products-at-a-store-near-you/ http://shiftingparadigms.org/paradigm-shift-shop-products-at-a-store-near-you/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:51:40 +0000 Marisa Barnett http://shiftingparadigms.org/?p=2823 Want to see Paradigm Shift Shop products carried at stores in your area?

The Director of the Paradigm Shift Shop, Marisa Barnett, will be traveling to the US for two weeks from the end of May to June 12 to promote the Paradigm Shift Shop and meet with prospective retailers to discuss carrying Paradigm Shift Shop products in their stores.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Paradigm Shift Shop, we sell Fair Trade hand-made products that are made by entrepreneurs who have gone through the Paradigm Shift program. We sell these products online as well as to retailers in the US.

Do you live in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Washington D.C. or Virginia? Does your church have a bookstore? Is there a shop near you that carries Christian gifts or Fair Trade products?

If you have any connections or store leads in the East Coast states listed above, please e-mail Marisa at Marisa@shiftingparadigms.org.

Prayer missed one of the last weekly meetings due to being sick. When I asked her if she’d had the chance to catch up on what she missed, she listed off five of the other entrepreneurs in the program who had helped to fill her in on the information covered in the meeting.

A fellow entrepreneur, James, has been helping Prayer to keep proper records for her shop. He proudly looked over Prayer’s shoulder as she shared how James helped her to realize that she was losing profit on some of the items that she was selling because she wasn’t taking into account how much the raw materials to make certain products cost her.

The Paradigm Shift program statistics attest to the success of the program. Statistics which show that:

Entrepreneurs saving money for the first time: 50%

Average income increase after participation: 82%

Entrepreneurs who started following Jesus for the first time in their lives: 27%

But numbers can’t capture the relationships and community that is formed through the program. Previous to the program Prayer and James, like many of the entrepreneurs, didn’t know each other. Now a friendship and business collaboration has formed between them and some of the other entrepreneurs.

Some of the most valuable benefits in life are the ones that cannot be measured.

Simple yet profound.

Forbes recently ran an article highlighting Stevenson’s quote from his 1983 book, Breakthrough Entrepreneurship. This definition encapsulates perfectly the individual that Paradigm Shift is trying to train. While many people resort to entrepreneurship out of necessity rather than desire, there are a select few entrepreneurs who have big visions and plans for their businesses. Paradigm Shift desires to give them the necessary tools and knowledge to take their visions and dreams to the next level. The prevalence of poverty in South Africa and seemingly lack of material resources may seem to inhibit entrepreneurship growth, but true entrepreneurship continues to pursue dreams and ideas regardless. Paradigm Shift seeks to foster, nature and grow these entrepreneurs.

To read the full article, click here

All of the Paradigm Shift Shop products abide by the principles of Fair Trade and I have the privilege of being able to witness first hand the impact that Paradigm Shift Shop purchases have on the lives of entrepreneurs and their families.

Trade As One

“Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.” (Gaultier)

People Secretly Fear Creative Ideas
Do you really value creativity? Folks say they want more creative people, more creative ideas, creative solutions, but do they really?

We say: “Creativity is good, we want more of it!” but we actually reject creative ideas as being impractical. That is because creativity requires uncertainty. Creativity is trying to do something that hasn’t been done before. Actually, creativity is an inherent quality given to each of us by our Creator. But because it includes uncertainty, we unlearn it. Uncertainty is a state that we try to escape from.

We say to ourselves: “we know how to do things that we’ve done before, but new things are mysterious. How will we achieve it? Is it practical? What could go wrong?” And the feelings of uncertainty make it harder to turn loose a creative idea. We end up doing the same old things just to avoid feeling uncertain.

For all the talk of creativity in business AND churches, there is strong evidence that it is discouraged. Leaders say they want creative ideas, but surveys indicate that creativity gets rejected in favor of conformity and uniformity.

But creativity does have more of a free reign in a less-Satan infected heritage than in any other culture. Amen for that.

“To Do” List = To creatively “Live vibrantly; Learn continuously; Love deeply and Leave a Legacy.”

- John King (http://his-kingdom.com)

One of the biggest movers in 2011 was reputation, which moved to #2 in the 2011 survey up from #17 in 2009. This is not surprising considering the changing feeling around microfinance globally. There has been a larger contingent questioning the efficaciousness of microfinance in alleviating poverty highlighting the increased default rates seen, exorbitant interest rates charged, the increased suicide rates seen in microfinance borrowers and the events in Andhra Pradesh. Another larger mover was macro-economic trends, which has fallen to #17 down from #3 in 2009. While the global economy has stabilized in the short-term, credit risk still remains a big issue in the industry (#1 in 2009, down only one spot to #2 in 2011).

If you are looking for an interesting read to get a good glimpse of the current microfinance industry check out the Microfinance Banana Skins Report here… http://www.citigroup.com/citi/microfinance/data/news110125b.pdf