Who is the LRA?

Have you heard? President Obama is sending 100 US troops to Central Africa to help and advise government forces battling Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels accused of murder, rape and kidnapping children.

While Northern Uganda has now seen a few years of sustained peace, the LRA continues to terrorize villages in Eastern Congo, Sudan and Central African Republic. Earlier this month, Invisible Children and Resolve announced the launch of the LRA Crisis Tracker - a mapping tool that reminds us, even though Northern Uganda is relatively safe, this conflict has not ended. 

All of the women working with One Mango Tree in our Gulu workshop have been affected by the LRA. Many lost brothers, fathers, and uncles. Several of our tailors were abducted and forced to fight. Others became child mothers when they were raped by LRA rebels and forced to serve as their wives. Almost all were displaced from their villages and have lived most of their lives in fear. While we are all glad to see peace in Northern Uganda, we cannot forget that this group continues to tear apart families and communities in other parts of Central Africa.

So, who is the LRA?

Who is the LRA from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with President Obama's decision to send troops?

Meet Prisca

Photos taken by Nicole Daniels and cross-posted from Storm the Mighty.

Prisca also works at One Mango Tree's Gulu workshop - in fact, she runs the show. We were able to visit her home with Jenn and Kaben, an American couple who lives and works at the One Mango Tree compound in Gulu. I wish I had more photos of Prisca to share with you but she hid in the kitchen cooking for us the entire time. We went outside and played with all of the neighborhood kids, who love to spend time at Prisca and Charles house (especially now that they have electricity and a TV!).

Prisca was so sweet, it was about to downpour and she offered to let all five of us stay with her and her family for the night. Maybe an offer we should’ve taken her up on. We all drove home in the pouring rain, in the dark, over the worst potholes on a dirt (mud) road with lightening on motorcycles. Boda Brad drove both me and my friend Joelle on his bike and Kaben and Jenn were on another. I was sandwiched between Brad swearing up a storm and Joelle praying out loud behind me. Definitely one of my most memorable days in Gulu!

Check out some photos of Prisca and her family, below.

Cynthia, Prisca's daughter

Isaac, Prisca's son (left) and the kids crowd Charles, Prisca's husband (right)

Prisca, standing next to the dish-drying rack in her compound

Meet Monica

Cross-posted from Storm the Mighty, from their recent visit to One Mango Tree in Gulu.

During our week long stay with One Mango Tree we were able to visit the homes of three of the seamstresses. Our first stop was to see Adokorach Monica and her sweet boys. We sat under a tree outside of her home. The dirt path was perfectly swept, I didn’t want to walk anywhere and ruin it. Favorite moment of the day: one of the boys saw that I was excited to see the chickens and he made a crazy chicken call and they came running to him! It was a beautiful moment - I’m still working on my chicken call!

Storm the Mighty visits One Mango Tree

Cross-posted from Storm the Mighty, by Brad and Nici Daniels

One Mango Tree. A “social entrepreneurship” aiming to provide opportunity and rehabilitation for women who were victimized by the LRA. The LRA or “Lord’s Resistance Army” is a group of rebels and are responsible for Africa’s longest running armed conflict. Led by Joseph Kony, the group has terrorized East Africa causing over 2 million people to be displaced from their homes and live in military guarded refugee camps.

“One Mango Tree uses a fair trade model to provide income generating opportunities for women in impoverished and conflict-ridden areas of the globe.”

We were so excited to arrive in Gulu, Uganda to see first hand the work of One Mango Tree and these amazing women! They were so sweet and so welcoming… and did I mention talented? You can order some of their products here at their online shop.

These two lovely Mzungus (white folk) are Jenn and Kaela! We stayed with Jenn, her husband Kaben and Kaela while we were in Gulu and did not want to leave them at the end of the week! Miss you guys ;)

One Mango Tree also provides a financial class for the women to teach them to budget, save and manage their money.

And here they are… the ladies of One Mango Tree! When you make a purchase, you’ll be given a tag with the name of the woman that made that item and you can find her photo on the website!

Keep your eyes out for these new fall bags from One Mango!

The Making of our Hand-loomed Scarves

One of our absolute favorite new releases this Winter is our One Mango Tree Hand-loomed Scarf!

In a partnership with Wawoto Kacel, a fantastic local cooperative, we were able to collaborate on a collection of uniquely dyed cotton scarves that will surely keep you warm this holiday season! Wawoto has a terrific staff trained with attention to the highest quality. The cooperative was started in 1997 by a group of HIV positive women. Today it provides employment and skills-training for more than 150 vulnerable individuals. Here's a behind the scenes look at the MAKING OF these beautiful, limited edition scarves:


The scarf starts out as cotton yarns, which are bleached, dyed, hung
to dry, and spun into brightly colored rolls.


It takes hours to set each piece of thread on the loom but finally, voila!
The artisans work their magic and the rainbow of beautiful, unique colors is
woven into a wide swath of fabric. This raw fabric is then brought to the One
Mango Tree Workshop to be cut into scarves, with edges sewn into neat seams.


Each one is unique and stunning, especially when you take a closer look! We couldn't be more thrilled with the final product and we're so happy to have partnered with Wawoto Kacel this holiday season. We look forward to collaborating again in the near future to continue empowering the surrounding community of northern Uganda.

SHOP THESE SCARVES HERE.

The day has come!

Since we began, Halle has dreamt of opening a nursery for the babes of our women and as of today, we're excited to announce that its' become a reality!




In a culture where most youth receive little to no educational attention, our vision is to create an environment that celebrates and encourages learning from a very young age. Our women can better spend their time working and enjoying one another while their babies are safe, away from machines of any sort. We were also able to hire a new One Mango Tree employee, Alice, who we'll affectionately call our 'superwoman.' She's single-handedly taking on all of the babes (and she's great at it!), playing educational games, and giving them a head start with speaking/writing in english and the local language. If anyone has an extra cape, can we borrow it?! We think she deserves one.



Seeing the doors open for the 'Little Mangos' nursery is certainly a day worth celebrating and we owe a big thanks to Halle's mother and father for all the dreaming and energy they put into this nursery! They painted hours upon hours of their visit so we could collectively make this a reality. Joe and Cona - a big thanks for all the hard work and love you both poured into this!

We hope you'll celebrate alongside us and I'm sure you'll see plenty of entertaining photos and videos from this nursery very soon...

Now that the women have less distractions, they'll have more time to sew your bag! Buy a bag and share the story, exponentially multiplying and spreading the One Mango Tree impact on the ground here in Uganda, in the states, and across the world.

xo Lauranne

"Go crazy!"

We made some time at a staff party recently to snap a brand new staff photo of the women!

So, we introduce to you the ladies of One Mango Tree: mid-laugh, mid-jump, mid-wave. All unique and beautiful women being changed by economic empowerment.




Top photo: (left to right) Prisca, Betty, Pamela, Margret, Grace, Gladys, Concy, baby Jonathan, Josephine, Grace, Irene, Eunice, Nassarine, Margret, Concy, Santa, Lucy, Betty, Margret, baby Maria, Claire, Jenet, Grace, baby Sarah, and Morine.

These are the faces of women that will sew your handbag with love.

P.S. Did you hear, yet? Tweet and spread the love to win a Weekender!

Just spread the love to win our giveaway!

Who doesn't love to win things? We're having a 'Back to School' September Exclusive Giveaway and you're invited to join by tweeting or blogging about our stellar ladies. Could it get any easier?





Step ONE: Simply tweet or blog about us!
Step TWO: Just tag us with @OneMangoTree (twitter) or reply to this post with a link to your blog post and you're good to go.

Do this and you'll be in the running to have one of our ladies sew you a *brand new* Fall 2010 Weekender! It's not even on our website yet... that's right!

If you can't tell, we pretty excited to send this sweet thing to your doorstep...

So get to tweeting!

VIDEO: Behind the Scenes

Here's a sneak peak at our brand new photoshoot for our Fall 2010 collection:

Behind the Scenes: Fall 2010 Collection

This week, we had our Fall 2010 collection photoshoot! We were incredibly excited for the day to come, we packed up everything we needed, and were thrilled to find such a beautiful location. Imagine spontaneous rain spurts (in uganda, it's currently the rainy season so you're never quite sure when to expect a downpour) and chasing away chickens as they attempted to peck at our products.

The models in these photos are two of our awesome women, Concy and Eunice. It's really humbling to see these products come full circle as Concy and Eunice poured their hearts into producing this apparel line. A big thanks to the wonderful Stefanie Bammer (who works locally for Purse of Hope) and Halle, our modest founder, for being such a great sport (isn't she beautiful?!) after we begged her to model.

You'll see the entire shoot when our Fall line launches!






Stefanie goofing around during the first shoot


Keep your eyes peeled - behind the scenes video is on its' way!

Get ready... World Humanitarian Day + FREE SHIPPING!

Celebrate with us as fair-trade continues to transform the lives of women in northern Uganda and across the globe!



For the first time ever, in celebration of World Humanitarian Day and as a thank you for supporting our women, we're giving FREE SHIPPING to everyone that orders between this Thursday and Sunday (Aug. 19th - Aug. 22nd)!

That's FOUR days to get free shipping with all our *brand new* organic apparel, handbags, sandals, aprons, headbands, and other fair-trade goodness. All to celebrate World Humanitarian Day, which commemorates the work of humanitarian aid workers - first responders who protect life and health and ensure respect for human beings in conflict and post-conflict zones.

In Northern Uganda, this meant years of support from the United Nations, International Organization for Migration, international donors and countless organizations who tirelessly supported the millions of displaced Acholi who lived in displacement camps (like many One Mango Tree staff) during the conflict. While the security situation in Northern Uganda is greatly improved, today we're thinking about others in the region who have been affected by the LRA, and the humanitarian aid workers who are there first to assist and respond.

Celebrate with us in support of the life change we're seeing in northern Uganda and across the world. Be a great friend and share this!

xo Lauranne

Our Organic Cotton fabrics

At One Mango Tree, we exist and believe fully in the impact that's made when people are valued, appreciated, and paid well for their talent and energy. This means not only providing our incredible Acholi women with sustainable monthly incomes, school fees for their children, and personal development but also being intentional with the other individual lives behind our supply chain. We want to make every effort possible to use fabrics that will positively impact the world around us and all the organic cotton we use at One Mango Tree is grown without harmful chemicals through the use of eco-friendly farming techniques by farmers in northern Uganda. Thus, it is 100% grown and sewn within Uganda through all levels of supply chain - beginning with the raw organic cotton, continuing with our partners who print our designs on the fresh fabric, to our talented ladies who sew everything at fair-trade wages, ending with your purchase and the way you share & continue the story.

Halle, Gihan, and I, accompanied by the wonderful Butvin family, had a phenomenal experience actually seeing our One Mango Tree fabrics in production this past weekend... and we want to share it all with you!


We took a quick tour to see our brand new fabric being created...


This white organic fabric (above) is woven by powerlooms
using the yarn that began as raw organic cotton.


We were able to watch as a rotary screenprinter
turned the plain white fabric into...


this!


The fabric continues through a dryer and results in this beautiful,
never-ending piece of organic goodness. It makes it's way to our
ladies in northern Uganda who hand-sew and create all of our products.

Pretty incredible, right?

Changing lives from the seed to your very hands.

We are Okay.

If you've caught the news or spoken with friends, it's likely you've heard about the recent terrorist attacks that took place Sunday night in Uganda. We, as an organization, are collectively mourning the deaths of 75 local ugandans as well as a dear American friend of ours Nate Henn, who spent the past few years raising funding and awareness for secondary students in Uganda. As many innocent locals and foreigners came together to enjoy the final game of the World Cup, it's reported that Somalian suicide bombers from Al-Shabab (linked with Al Qaida) entered two separate venues and devastated the crowds.

We are appreciative of all of your concerns and so thankful to share that our ladies and staff in Uganda are all very safe. We're just experiencing a glimpse of the heartache this country has experienced in the past but together, we're all hopeful and standing united amidst these painful losses.

In times like these, we're reminded just how greatly needed consistency, love, and sustainability are here. We encourage you to share this story with friends and family and to continue supporting as we pursue employing and empowering these 30 phenomenal women.

If you're interested in reading more about the Kampala terrorist attacks, you can do so here.

With gratitude,
the One Mango Tree team