Haiffaa's Story (Please Share This Post)

I don’t usually discuss politically minded things here. I have another blog where I rant freely and without filters, this is my craft blog and focuses on my craft career. Occasionally though, real life and my craft career intersect and today was one of those days. Several years back I found out about a group of refugee women in Denver who were assimilating into our culture and crafting as a way of making some pin money. Something about my first book struck a chord with them, perhaps it was the happy colors or the big pictures...I can’t say. I sent them some books and supplies and continued to follow their progress.

They began as The Bead Women of Denver and eventually they expanded from jewelry making into a variety of crafty endeavors. One woman in the group, Haiffaa Ali, was an exceptional talent and spokesperson. She had escaped Iraq, leaving absolutely everything behind to be faced with the squalor of a refugee camp. Eventually she and her family made their way to America. Recently Haiffaa returned to Iraq while staying in Jordan on vacation. She needed closure on her father’s death, a murder unrelated to the war, and she took a risk that proved deadly. While booking her return trip she was killed in a bombing.


I’m here to share her story because I believe in the power of creativity to transform, elevate and heal. Every woman and man who has ever channeled their creativity has touched this power. I think if we spent more time creating and less time destroying, the world could become an amazing place. It is my mission to remind you, gentle reader, that creativity is the opposite of destruction and every time we create we are shifting the world for the better.

I do not believe in this war, but I do not believe in war at all. I have never been able to understand war. Why must we fight over such arbitrary things as lines drawn on maps or ways of praying or the color of our skin or differences in politics? I pray with all of my heart and soul for a day when we look back and wonder how we ever could have as a human race participated in the mass murder of innocents. Ever. Every person who dies in a war is a person, like you or me. Every life matters. Every life has value. Everyone who dies in a war is a person who was someone’s mother, sister, brother, father, friend, neighbor, child...a person who had the right to live in a world without fear, hatred and war.

Haiffa’s story is powerful and I’d like to share it here. Please follow this link and read her story. Then if you feel compelled, please help the women from A Little Something make this world a better place through the power of their creativity. Each one of us is a link in the chain and we have within us the power to change the world. I believe in The Power of We, how about you?

Be in Peace,
Margot