Friday's Internet Edition, July 30, 2010.
West senior worked at orphanage last summer
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| Leah Weatherman wears her Kenyan beads to school. |
The Clemmons Courier - Leah Weatherman has spent much of her senior year at West Forsyth High raising money for orphans in Kenya.
She went there last summer, and the experience made a lasting impression. She sells beads to her friends to benefit the orphanage.
Leah Weatherman is the daughter of Shawn and Melanie Weatherman, and she has a missionary spirit.
“Amani beads are beads made by women in Kenya,” she said. “The women who make them are supported by making the beads. They’re becoming really popular here.”
The Amani Foundation collects the beads and gives them to volunteers in America to be sold.
The clay-like, painted ornaments come in many colors. They are used to make necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. “You just kind of put them on the string. Whatever you think looks good,” Weatherman said. “There’s really a lot of freedom. You can do whatever you want with them, which is the cool thing.”
The idea of selling the beads stemmed from Weatherman’s difficulty buying the beads for herself. “One of our friends, Emily Welker, was making them and selling them,” she said. “I felt really bad because I couldn’t buy any, so she gave me some beads and string, and I started making them.”
Weatherman started selling the beads in January when civil strife developed in Kenya. “Kenya was going through a really rough time, which is probably why I started doing it,” she said. “They had just had an election, and the fairness of that election was highly disputed. That led to tribal conflict between the two opposing leaders that were running for president.”
People died in the conflict. “Mostly the fighting was in riots,” said Weatherman. “(There) was a huge amount of people in a church, and the church got burned down.”
Last summer, Weatherman spent a month working in the Kenyan orphanage Ray of Hope.