“The Women’s Wool Collective, Draganac Monastery has begun a project to help local women in isolated villages support their families, who often live on only about $100 per month, to become more financially independent, while utilizing their creativity and skills. This is part of a larger project of the Diocese of Raška-Prizren to help support local families, to help them to stay in their ancestral homes, and to provide them with work. This project in particular focuses on the fact that the woman is the heart of the family, and that as such, it is by helping the women to find work and to use their skills that we can have a large impact on Kosovo families. Kosovo Serbian women are famous for their wool products and needlework, thus, we find women who are in need in isolated villages, and offer them the chance to improve their families’ lives.
We take the wool from Dečani Monastery sheep, our Monastery pays for it to be made into yarn, and then we give the yarn for free to the women to do their creative work. Here you can buy the fruits of their labors. Many of the products are unique and one-of-a-kind, and special orders are always possible. While the project began and is focused on Monastery-produced wool, we have some other cotton products available as well, but everything is hand-made with love by the women of Kosovo. Our designs aim to be a combination of traditional Serbian patterns with an eye for modern tastes. Our wool products are made exclusively from the sheep from Dečani Monastery in Kosovo and are either the natural, white wool color of the sheep, or are dyed with traditional vegetable-based dyes as Serbian women have done for centuries. All profits from the sales of these items go directly to the women; your purchase has a very real impact on the lives of financially struggling families in Kosovo.”
some explanation (im not listing all the sources here as i already posted them on my blog but several human rights and minority rights organizations have reported on it) Serbs in Kosovo are forced to live in ethnic enclaves away from the cities, they are kept from participation in public life and their only language university is not recognized by the government, they are kept from public employment or obtaining professional licenses, they are threatened to leave their homes, chased away, and regularly subjected to violent hate crimes (some of the most recent attacks were a 12 year old child beaten so badly he had to be brought in a wheelchair to the hospital and an old grandmother being brutally killed by kosovo police).
also, kosovo police raided hospitals in serbian enclaves and stole vital medications during this corona pandemic. when the republic of serbia sent corona vaccines to kosovo serbs, the kosovo government tried to seize them and claimed the fact they were sent was an act of terrorism and ‘provocation’.
their work is beautiful! I would love to buy a sweater or bag
thank you so so much for checking out their works and also to everyone who reblogged this 🥲♥️♥🖤
