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Miss Nguyen’s Heart Warming Update – Guest Blog for Lifestart Foundation.
With Nguyen and the first family of JadeMosnters.
Miss Nguyen is one amazing woman and I feel most privileged to have been able to work with her. If your day needs a bit of a lift, or you’re needing some motivation to get on with those new year resolutions, please have a flick through the following stories. I hope Nguyen gives you the strength of heart she gives me.
Over the past few months I have had the pleasure of working with Miss Nguyen, a talented crafts woman working at the Lifestart Foundation Workshop. Together we created the JadeMonster plush toy – the first in my new range of merchandise available from my website.
Nguyen’s Early Story - by Karen Leonard
Meeting Barry III, Nguyen and creating the JadeMonster – by Jade Leonard
Miss Nguyen’s Heart Warming Update – by Jade Leonard
JadeMonster logo!
If you have purchased one of Nguyen’s sock creatures, or a JadeMonster plush toy, please leave us a comment and give us an update on your new family member!
Meeting Barry, Nguyen and creating JadeMonster.
Sock creatures galore!
One day I was introduced to Barry III, a floppy lovable little creature made from striped socks. Out of the bag, Barry was followed by half a dozen equally strange and adorable friends. I wanted all of them, but I couldn’t have them – they were already adopted and heading for new homes many miles away from where they came.
At the Workshop.
Barry and his brethren are made by Nguyen (pronounced ‘Nwin’), a wonderful young woman who has been making and selling sock creatures for the past seven months at the Lifestart Foundation Workshop in Hoi An, Vietnam. My mum, Karen Leonard, is the founder and director of Lifestart so I often check out the new stock as it is released.
I spent yesterday afternoon with Nguyen, her mother and sister-in-law at their home 10km out of Hoi An, Vietnam. We were greeted with a table of fresh fruit and tasty custard buns – she knows me well! I have spent the past few weeks working with Nguyen creating the JadeMonster, my very own range of sock creatures, so it was lovely to spend some time with her away from the workshop.
Nguyen and her mum at home.
Before Barry and the JadeMonster, life for Nguyen was a little different. She lives with an inoperable condition commonly known as ‘a hole in the heart’, which renders her immobile 12 hours each day while she is connected to two large oxygen tanks. Her condition often leaves her unable to leave her bed for days at a time. Consequently, holding down a typical full time job in Vietnam (well in excess of the standard 40 hours per week we expect in Australia) has been very difficult for her in the past.
She needed a job that could be flexible in hours but also create enough income to cover her living and medical expenses. Fortunately, Nguyen was introduced to the Lifestart Workshop which creates income earning potential for women from disadvantaged backgrounds.
To begin with Nguyen made embroidered cards but her creative talents were soon discovered when a volunteer brought in a prototype for the sock creatures. At first Nguyen – and all the ladies at the workshop – were very skeptical of the potential popularity of these weird looking dolls made from socks. Sock creatures did not exist in Hoi An before Nguyen and her initial thoughts were that they were crazy and silly and that they would not sell in the shop!
These reservations were quickly blown out of the water. Within six months the sock creatures have become the most popular item in the shop, selling as quickly as they are placed on the shelves (literally – I’ve seen her put one on the shelf and it gets adopted immediately!) Nguyen has now broadened the range of her sock creatures she makes and everyone seems to develop an immediate favourite.
With the first JadeMonsters!
Since starting work with Lifestart, Nguyen has been able to purchase a motorcycle, greatly increasing her mobility and independence and her income has doubled, allowing her to fulfill her immediate goal of providing some simple comforts for her family home. She can now work flexible hours depending on her health without fear of losing her job. She takes home 100% of the money she makes from the dolls. Some of the socks she is using to create the JadeMonsters are donated by a Melbourne based sock manufacturer, which reduces her costs considerably.
Nguyen comments on the improvement in the quality of her life. She now has a wonderful support network among the other women at the workshop, her English is constantly improving due to English classes and her regular interaction with tourists and she greatly enjoys and appreciates the opportunity to work with and meet so many people.
JadeMonster logo!
To me, Nguyen’s sock creatures spread bundles of happiness all around the world – they each carry a small piece of Nguyen’s resilient spirit inside of them. I’ve witnessed people from all walks of life break into spontaneous, glowing smiles when they see these creatures. I am so overjoyed to have the opportunity to work with Nguyen on the JadeMonster. Should you chose to purchase one, I only hope it brings you as much happiness as creating them does for me!
To have your very own JadeMonster, please visit http://www.jademonster.net.
