Buy a purse, change a life

Items that will be available for purchase Saturday at the Eternal Threads sale include, from left, tote bags, bracelets with beads made from newspapers and magazines, book covers, a woven lemur and giraffe, bowls from Uganda, and more tote bags.

McCOOK, Nebraska -- Helping women and female children become literate and self-sustaining is as easy as buying a purse. Or a bracelet. Or a shawl.

But not just any purse, bracelet or shawl, but one made by a woman in India, Afghanistan or other Third World countries and sold by Eternal Threads. A non-profit organization, Eternal Threads buys the items for a fair wage from the women who make them and sells them worldwide, offering rural women in poverty a chance to earn some money to send their children to school, purchase cooking stoves or open their first bank account.

Michelle Lytle of McCook will sell some of these items on Saturday at HomeSpun, 110 W. Third, from 2-4 p.m.

Prices are more than reasonable - bracelets start at $3, purses at $20 - and the purchase means more than owning a unique item.

Proceeds from a brightly colored tote bag or jewelry also go toward vocational training for young women exploited by prostitution, provides funding for border surveillance that have rescued thousands of girls from a life of sex slavery or to send girls to school in Afghanistan.

Each item, unique to its geographical location, is made by a woman who used skills usually passed down for generations and is inherent in the community, whether it's embroidery, jewelry making, or weaving.

"I believe in this mission and helping women," Lytle said. She hosted an Eternal Thread show four years ago and sold out. "How many times can you buy something beautiful and make a difference in someone's life?"

And what a difference. The purchase of one tote bag from Eternal Threads doubles the family income of a women for nearly a week and educates a girl for two months.

Handmade items that will be available for sale on Saturday include the tote bags; cards with pressed flowers and gift bags; silk shawls from Madagascar; woven bowls from Uganda; bracelets made of beads created from newspapers and magazines, made by orphans in the Philippines; hand-loomed raffia place mats; sling purses from Nepal, made from sari's and many items for kids, such as woven animals, finger puppets and purses.

Lytle has met Linda Egle, a Palisade, Nebraska, native who started this ministry as a way to help women in rural Third World countries find a way out of poverty. In April, Egle, now of Abiline, Texas, the headquarters of Eternal Threads, was named a co-recipient of the 2012 Norman Borlaug Humanitarian Award.

The fact that it's legit speaks volumes to Lytle. For each item purchased, the money is "going where it's suppose to go, not into anyone's pocket," she explained.

And those who want to help women halfway across the world can do so, without even leaving town, Lytle said.

"You can make a huge difference to these women, just by buying something they made," she said.