We Are All Connected

Sometimes it feels like the world is so big, and the problems in our backyard are so great that it’s hard to find empathy for people whose lives are completely different from our own. But through the We Are All Connected Project, the Paper Fig Foundation made the world a little smaller.

PFF Managing Director Emily Weitz has two children in public schools in Sag Harbor, NY. She presented the story of PFF, and of how we help equip at-risk youth in Southwest Uganda with skills they can use to support themselves. Skills like sewing, weaving, knitting, and jewelry making. With these skills, young people who otherwise weren't able to afford to go to school are able to find meaningful, dignified work.

WATCH THE VIDEO FROM SAG HARBOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!

The kids of Sag Harbor thought the work the PFF community was doing was beautiful. So they had a lemonade stand to raise the money to purchase 500 bracelets from the PFF designers. When Emily traveled to East Africa, she brought the money and purchased the bracelets. 14 motivated young jewelry designers were very excited to be paid generous wages for their work.

When Emily returned, she went back to the Sag Harbor school and shared videos of the Paper Fig community shouting “We Are All Connected”! And the students in Sag Harbor shouted “We Are All Connected!” right back. Now, every day in Sag Harbor, you don’t have to look far to see a child in a We Are All Connected bracelet.

We really are. We Are All Connected.