Beads of Hope
by
Laurie Freeman-Shimizu
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One woman makes a difference with beads

In May 2002, when Marilyn Berg packed her bags for a second visit to Cuba, she hardly left room for clothing, what with all the beads, tools and stringing materials she was toting with her. The founder and owner of MB Imports, a Seattle, Washington, bead retailer, who herself has been beading since 1980, Marilyn was determined to help establish a network of Cuban bead artisans who could develop a business in beaded jewelry aimed at the tourist trade. “When I toured Cuba for the first time [in January 2002],” she says, “I learned that the average wage, per month, is $12, and I  couldn’t figure it out… how people were surviving on that.”  During this first visit, as a part of a delegation of forty individuals led by Senator Maria Cantwell (Dem, Washington), Marilyn visited orphanages, hospitals, and schools. She also noticed that there was a considerable tourist trade, with visitors from Europe, Canada and Mexico, but there was little for these tourists to actually purchase. “There’s very little to work with, is what it boils down to,” she says. “It’s the [economic trade] embargos since Russia left, and there isn’t much of anything, even food. As a tourist, you would never realize [the extent of poverty] since as a visitor, you’re given lots of food. I had brought some beads with me on this first trip, and I did teach a couple of classes, one in an orphanage, one in a school. And I started thinking about the purpose of the trip, and I realized that I had something to offer. That is, I could help them learn to bead, possibly make things to sell.”
Beading has been a central part of Marilyn’s life since 1980 when she taught herself to bead and make beaded jewelry and other items as a way to support herself and her family after her husband died. “It was a gift… that I started beading... and it opened a whole new career for me, a way to support myself,” she says. “I realized, as I was touring Cuba, that it was time for me to pass that gift along to someone else.”
One of the highlights of this first trip, Marilyn says, was the opportunity to meat the Cuban president Fidel Castro. “He met with all of us, the forty of us women in business. He is a very impassioned person and spoke at a length about the [trade] embargo, about raising children, and about some really personal things,” she says. “My impression is that he truly has regrets for some of the things he has done, and how things have turned out. He really does care about his people. He was humble, kind and spoke with each of us personally.” When she returned to the States from that first trip, Marilyn got busy developing a plan to help a small group of Cubans establish their own business. She formed a nonprofit organization, Beads of Hope (in Spanish, Cuentas de Esperanza), and began talking about the project with other vendors in the beading business, hoping to inspire donations of beads. “All we can offer is that donors write off their donations as tax deductions,” she says. “But the number of people  that we can help this way—its amazing.” In what Marilyn calls, “record time,” she put together Beads of Hope. She credits the enthusiasm of people who “were really excited” about the project and began sending her stringing materials, tools, and beads that she could use to teach the Cubans to make jewelry. She welcomes donations of beads large and small, including donations from beaders who “simply have beads left over” from a project (see bottom of article for an address and tax number). “Things that we all take for granted, in Cuba, these things are overwhelming gifts,” she says. “Tools that we buy for $10 go for $100 on the black market.”
Working in conjunction with the Women’s Federation of Cuba, Marilyn put together another mission last May at a time that coincided with the unofficial diplomatic mission to Cuba of former president Jimmy Carter. Carter, who met with Castro during his trip, was trying to revive attempts at opening a dialogue between the United States and Cuba. The aim is to open the Cuban market to American goods and to promote a human rights agenda. Marilyn, who was staying at the home of the American Ambassador at the time, met Carter and his wife Rosalyn.
During that two-and-a half weeks that Marilyn spent in Cuba, she held classes and trained different groups every day. Classes were all prearranged before she arrived, but it “was sad to turn people away,” she says. “More people came out than we could train in a given day.” Because there was a trade embargo in place, Marilyn did have a few difficulties getting beads, tools, and stringing materials to Cuba. She had to get a special permit to visit Havana, for one. Then when she showed up at the Seattle airport with about 260 pounds of materials, she found out that the airline was going to charge her $2 per pound for each pound over the limit. A helpful airport manager “waved me through” allowing her to take the beads on the plane with no charge. Marilyn arrived in Cuba, but her bags of beads did not. It took some effort from the U.S. intercession office to find the bags and get them released. “I wasn’t supposed to bring anything to the country, and they were being held up for that reason,” she says. “After I got some help from the secretary to the ambassador, I was able to get the bags released.” 
At the Ludwig Foundation (a nonprofit, non-government arts organization), Marilyn taught a class of ten men and two women, one of whom is now sufficiently trained to continue teaching others what he’s learned. More than forty people are now involved in beadworking on some kind of ongoing basis, she says. Eventually, Marilyn says, more attention will be turned toward finding appropriate places to display and sell the jewelry, but for now, the emphasis is on training and helping Cubans to make original jewelry. “They asked me to bring American magazines so they could look at the designs, but they’re so good at designs, they don’t need to make copies of what we do.” 
Beads of Hope, Marilyn maintains, is an idea for a business plan that can be exported to other impoverished countries, such as Madagascar, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Guatemala, and the Baltic countries. “This is all about creating hope for people around the world,” she says “Beads have been a wonderful part of my life... it can be like that for others as well.”

Donations of beads, tools, and stringing materials can be sent to Marilyn Berg, Beads of Hope, 2442 North West Market St., #350, Seattle WA 98107. Tax ID #33-0998499

Laurie Freeman-Shimizu is a freelance writer based in Edina, Minnesota. Her beads have taken over her dining room table, and she tries to bead in between her writing, driving her kids, and knitting beads into socks, mittens, and felted bags