D - Dorcas Designs provides
O - Opportunities
R - Regain Confidence
C - Change Lifestyle
A - Access to return to society
S - Strengthen Skill Development
Dorcas Design is a non-profit organization developed by a group of skilled, disabled women in China, who have overcome stigma and poverty. All profit will be used to help reach more women in need. Their mission is to assist physically and economically disabled women,
including orphans and widows and their families to have equal
development and work opportunities to enable them to participate more
fully in society.
Their Activities:
Learn income generating skills.
Design and sew marketable items.
Participate in group activities that enhance growth and personal development.
Individual Counseling for special needs.
Their Goals:
Develop a self sustaining micro enterprise.
Enable women to regain self esteem and confidence.
Your purchase of Dorcas Design products will help the physically disabled to earn a livelihood for their families through their sewing and quilting skills. Some of the products they make are beautiful brocade quilts, neck pillows, aprons, totes, diaper bags, pouches and bible bags.
Meet Lilly...
Lilly is an orphan who became physically disabled at a young age. After
her mother died during childbirth, raising a daughter was too much for
her father to handle. In desperation, he tried to kill her by immersing
her in boiling water. When she didn't die, he took her to the steps of a
mental institution and she was taken in by the caretaker of the
hospital. She was raised there and lived a very hard life. She was
disfigured and only capable of crawling on all fours. When she was
discovered by a local missionary at age 13, they helped her receive
surgeries to repair her burned and deformed legs. She was then able to
stand upright for the first time in her life. At 17, she was taken in by
Dorcas Design as a
quilt maker and now has a thriving life. She
got married to a wonderful man who loves her so much and doesn't care
about her physical disabilities, and they just had their first baby. (see their pic above!)
Meet Mary...
Mary is 49 years old. A rice farmer's wife, with 2 children, ages 21 and 22, she has
lived away from her family for the past 5 years in a leprosy village.
She only had 5 years of elementary school education and grew up in a
poor family. Leprosy (Hansens Disease) affected her father and
eventually he was cured but this was how she contracted it. Her case was
much worse than her father's. Symptoms included a bleeding nose and
pain in her hands and feet. Eventually her nose collapsed and she had
problems with her feet. There is great stigma at home, and she became
bitter on the inside even though it didn't show on the outside. People
stopped talking to her and would turn away.
She came to
Dorcas Design
through Mr. Dong. He visited the leprosy village and invited her over a
year ago but she had been caring for an old lady there. The woman died last year and was not a relative of Mary but she was faithful in
caring for her and came in March 2011 to Dorcas Design.
Please pray for Mary and Lilly at
Dorcas Design!
Pastor John Hansen of Centerpointe Church in Murrieta, CA went to visit the ladies of Dorcas Design in 2011. Here's what he said:
"I had the opportunity to visit Dorcas design. I was so blessed to see that 'Heavenly Treasures'
ministry partner site. For years we have had their items for sale at our church... and it was such a blessing to meet the girls who do the work! I
went to each girl and woman there and spoke with each of them (in Mandarin) and
profusely thanked them for their good work, for the beauty of their
craftsmanship... I told them how much our people back home in the states look
forward to seeing and buying what they make, and I thanked each one for their
excellent work on behalf of all of our friends back in the states. It was a joy
to see first-hand how they are being given dignity, training, safety, shelter,
and care. Seeing it firsthand made me even more glad to be partnering
with Heavenly Treasures."