Harding students love supporting a good cause, especially when they receive a quality product in the process. Enter Lily and Laura. On a trip to Nepal several years ago, they wanted to find a way to help women in earn a fair wage so they created a company to train the women of the Kathmandu Valley how to make create hand-beaded bracelets which are then sold in America. The women are seen as artisans in their community and are able to help support their families and break the cycle of poverty, abuse, and human trafficking in the region.
The designs are partly their own. To create a unique and quality accessory, they use some of the finest glass beads in the world. This also ensures that each bracelet will vary slightly and there are no two alike. Customers have their own small collections of bracelets, which they like to mix and match depending on their outfit or mood. Lily and Laura bracelets are like the friendship bracelets from years ago because of the way girls will share, swap and pass them along.
After stumbling upon these bracelets in a gift shop on a recent vacation to Nepal, the mother-daughter team of Dee and Haley Mae Cairo decided to start their own non-profit organization, Mae Movement, to sell even more of the one-of-a-kind glass bead bracelets. They are trying to also spread the story about the talented women of Nepal and how a simple purchase can help improve the life of someone across the globe.
While I have yet to see Lily and Laura bracelets abound on Harding’s campus, they are extremely popular back home in Georgia and it is only a matter of time before they catch on in Searcy, too. Lily and Laura bracelets can be found at Almost Anything Boutique on E. Race Ave.
