GV student designs bead for Ugandan jewelry makers

By CHELSEA STOSKPOF | Grand Valley Lanthorn
Updated: September 19, 2010, 11:52 PM

Moving back to Grand Valley State University three weeks ago, senior Elizabeth Marchetta, 20, spent her summer completing a graphic design internship in Uganda with an organization called Light Gives Heat. LGH helps give women from the villages around Jinja, Uganda, a consistent income by purchasing their handmade crafts items, serving breakfast on Wednesdays and offering English and design classes where women can learn about new designs and necklaces to sell.

“I was looking at a magazine on Google called ‘Relevant’ and there was an ad for (LGH),” Marchetta said. “I was intrigued by it because I was really interested in their cause and location.”

There are two sub-groups of LGH. One of which is called Suubi, where women roll recycled paper into beads which then are bought by LGH and sold in America. The other is called Epoh where LGH works with 12 tailors who produce handmade bags and purses out of scraps of fabric.

While there, Marchetta took part in graphic designing for the company’s website, which included creating profile pages for all the bead makers and tailors. She also created logos for LGH and Suubi, helped a film crew make a documentary about the community, created a video for the organization and its sub-groups and created a bead with the Suubi logo which will be included on every Suubi necklace.

“I loved the cross-section of making some beads, design and video, even gaining insight that this was what I wanted to do,” she said.

Chitra Gopalakrishnan, an assistant professor of graphic design at GVSU, said internships are great tools for teaching students about spontaneous work ethic and other work connected to their field of study.

“There are a lot of things you can learn when you arrive there that you couldn’t have found in research,” she said.

Marchetta stayed with the LGH founders Dave and Morgan Hansow for the first month of her stay. She said she also did a lot of research on the couple and their organization before signing up for the internship. Gopalakrishnan signed Marchetta’s internship papers and advises students to thoroughly research the country and organization before asking for a similar internship.

“It is good to cross-check names in Google because that comes up with a lot of information,” Gopalakrishnan said. “If you are interested in a specific country, look up facts about the country because that will help you while you are there.”

Marchetta said she did research for half a year before signing up for an internship.

“I talked directly with the founders, volunteers and even one of their steps was doing a research paper about Uganda before I went,” she said. “If you want to do it, just go all out as far as researching and talking to people and professors.”

Three weeks after her experience in Uganda, Marchetta said she is already looking forward going back.

“All in all, I was so pleased to be working under Light Gives Heat,” she said. “It was so exciting to create designs that are being used to help the 93 women and 12 tailors continue their business.”

To view the necklaces and handbags or learn more about LGH, visit their website at www.lightgivesheat.org.