Same Sky is a cause-based trade initiative that provides training and employment for HIV-positive women survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide struggling to lift themselves out of poverty.
Same Sky products can be seen on celebrities such as Bono, Halle Berry, Ben Affleck, Meryl Streep, Fergie, Hillary Clinton, Usher, and Kris Jenner.
This marked 70% to 80% of the Tutsi population, but the genocide ended when the Rwandan Patriotic Front led by Paul Kagame gained control in the country.
Francine LeFrak worked with The Most Excellent Halfway House to train previously incarcerated women to create jewelry and earn a steady income.
[3] In 2007, Francine’s LeFrak's friend Willa Shalit, who produced baskets and jewelry in Rwanda through her company, asked her to consider designing and marketing different types of mesh bracelets.
LeFrak found and fell in love with a design created by AIDS activist and artist Mary Fisher that featured hand-blown glass beads.