Author: Huang Nina
Northwest Asia Weekly
Ming-Ming Tung-Edelman and RAI artist Diba (Photo by Jessica Garcia)
Inspired by her grandmother, a single mother raising her mother and uncle, Ming-Ming Tung-Edelman wanted to use sewing as a way to give back to the community.
The Refugee Artisan Initiative (RAI) works with immigrant women to promote an inclusive, prosperous transition to America through zero-waste and low-volume manufacturing artisan skills training.
RAI’s founder and executive director, Tung-Edelman, worked as a pharmacist for 25 years before assuming his current position.
“We flexibly use their skills to meet community needs by using sewing as a platform for expressing concerns. We created masks emblazoned with VOTE and BLM (for Black Lives Matter) to combine artisan skills with advocacy, and now for Show your support for what’s happening in Ukraine,” Tung-Edelman said.
She added that this is a fantastic opportunity for women who fled war zones to Seattle to start their new lives using sewing as a therapy, and are now taking the opportunity to help refugees in Ukraine.
A few weeks ago, the team at RAI started making blue and yellow butterfly pins in support of Ukraine.
According to Tung-Edelman, the butterfly symbolizes freedom, tenacity and rebirth.
“Our goal is to sell 1,000 pins to raise money for the Ukrainian Red Cross, one of the first to step in and help with relief efforts,” she said.
“It makes perfect sense to have refugees help refugees,” she added.
Tung-Edelman said they didn’t make the pins to make money. Each butterfly pin costs $10, the artisan who makes it $4, the material costs $1, and the rest of the proceeds go to the Ukrainian Red Cross.
She mentioned that Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and several members of the King County Council have been wearing pins in public to show their support.
Baseerah Salim wearing a #StandWithUkraine brooch (photo by Sharon Ho Chang)
Additionally, local community members including Laura Clise and Aparna Rae of The Intentionalist also showed their support on social media by wearing butterfly pins in support of the #StandWithUkraine movement.
“The Intentionalist is proud to be one of many long-time supporters of the Refugee Artisan Initiative. I had the opportunity to speak at length with Executive Director Ming-Ming Tung-Edelman about how their #StandWithUkraine butterfly pin is both a statement of solidarity and a A tool to raise much-needed financial support. In addition to highlighting this effort through our online communication channels, we also purchased pins and gifted them to female business owners and community leaders, asking them to wear pins proudly and help spread the word, ‘ Clise shared in an Instagram direct message.
“We want to start a movement to recognize butterflies and show solidarity with Ukraine. It also helps our RAI artisans use their craftsmanship and skills for this worthy cause,” Tung-Edelman said.
RAI sells these pins individually online, as well as a five-piece set with thread and pins, with step-by-step instructions for those who want to make them at home.
The concept of RAI started in 2016, but the nonprofit was launched in 2017.
The organization supports a community that values and invests in refugee and immigrant women as they achieve economic independence.
“Sewing is a lingua franca for me. From Afghanistan to Burma, fleeing genocide and the Taliban, sewing allows these women to become self-sufficient sooner,” she said.
Sewing was a very familiar skill they had already mastered, and she saw how her grandmother used these elementary skills to provide her family, so she was tempted to spoil these deficit women’s concerts and wanted to focus on the assets they came with and.
“They have these amazing hand sewing skills that are simply not taught in school,” she added.
Tung-Edelman said they have become very consumer-oriented. They have women on board, and the RAI provides them with a quick way to start earning income from home through training in the home hybrid model. They teach women through video tutorials.
In 2015, when Tung-Edelman was pursuing a certificate program in fashion at the University of Washington, she befriended her mentor, where they brainstormed ideas to create jobs for refugee women and create a circular fair economy with textiles.
She started collecting textiles around the city, including previously unsellable bed sheets from Amazon. She picked these up from a warehouse in Fife and was able to teach the women at RAI to turn sheets into masks. Tung-Edelman launched a GoFundMe campaign and raised funds to make 1,000 masks for Kaiser Permanente in Everett. In addition, they are producing masks for bus drivers traveling to the city of Seattle.
RAI is currently working with 16 female refugees from Afghanistan, Myanmar, China, Ethiopia, Morocco and Vietnam.
They are also working with refugee resettlement offices in the greater Seattle area, such as the Refugee Women’s Alliance and others, to recruit more artisans from countries like Myanmar and Ethiopia.
Baseerah Salim, a mother of six from Afghanistan, moved to Seattle in 2003 and joined RAI late last summer as a craftsman.
Saleem already knew how to sew, as she used to make traditional clothes for her and her children.
Her work is flexible because she works three to four hours a day from her home in Beimen, which is exactly how she wants to work.
“I’ve loved sewing since I was a kid. I learned it from my mom and I love it. Now, I’m very happy,” she said.
Her favorite thing to do is hair ties because her kids love it.
Before working at RAI, she worked in a nursery.
Salim sews a variety of products, including embroidered pillows, sandwich bags, face masks, hair ties, and now butterfly pins.
“I’m excited to help support Ukrainian refugees because when I was about 10 or 11 years old, I went through a similar experience that was very difficult,” she explained.
Nina can be contacted at info@nwasianweekly.com.
