Haymarket store celebrates International Women’s Day

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - March 8 was International Women’s Day and a store in the Haymarket is celebrating the achievements of women from all over the world.

Ten Thousand Villages had an event on Saturday to highlight those women. The store is a fair trade organization that has been in the Haymarket since 1992. The crafts in the store are from about 20,000 artisan partners, 60% of those people being women.

Jillian Christy, the store’s manager, said in a lot of the countries the store gets these goods from, women have few opportunities outside of the home and turn to making art to support their families. She said this day is a time to appreciate the women from around the community and around the world.

“We really try to take International Women’s Day as an opportunity to highlight those female artisan partner groups and then also try to find ways to celebrate different crafts and skills they use within the store during our celebrations,” Christy said.

The store has crafts displayed from 30 different countries like Guatemala, Peru and India. Women with many different talents were at the store today like hand weavers, henna artists and belly dancers.