December 3, 2009

ACDI/VOCA Volunteer Featured in O Magazine

Patti Carpenter, a former ACDI/VOCA volunteer, is featured in this month’s O Magazine as one of four women who provide gifts that give back to others.

Carpenter, a designer and fashion executive, served as an expert volunteer for ACDI/VOCA on three assignments in Bolivia from 2000 to 2003. She worked with women who were members of Bolivia’s ComArt Tukuypaj cooperative to help them rework their designs of knit and loom products for a global market. She also helped mentor the women who led the cooperative’s creative process, focusing on the development of new products.

Moreover, Carpenter worked with the women in Bolivia to help them rethink ways to enhance the image and marketability of ComArt Tukuypaj in the national and international market by revising and improving promotional materials and advising on product presentations at the three community stores. Thanks to Carpenter’s efforts, Bloomingdale’s agreed to carry some of ComArt’s products.

These assignments tapped Carpenter’s passion and became her business, where through Carpenter+Company she continues to work with artisans in Africa and Central and South America to market their products, such as embroidered throws, scarves and table runners, in global retail chains like Dean & DeLuca and Bloomingdale’s.

“By selling their handwoven textiles, Patti Carpenter gives hope to the craftspeople who create them,” says the O Magazine article.

What can you do?

• Consider a gift that gives back to others. Help support expert volunteers like Patti Carpenter through a gift to our VOCA Foundation Fund.


• Give a meaningful and green gift this holiday season. Support our Greenest Gift volunteer campaign. Your support will help us provide a farmers’ group in Kenya with a greenhouse, drip irrigation and a volunteer’s expertise to help them grow and sell more food, even in drought conditions.


• Learn more about ACDI/VOCA’s expert volunteer program.