Dan Deans
Case Western Reserve University - Weatherhead School of Management
David Cooperrider
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Alethe Fatherley’s vision is to revolutionize the jewelry industry by recognizing people, especially those in rural Africa, as its “most precious resource.” Recognizing the dire need for clean water and better education, Ms. Fatherley, a certified gemologist, offers through participating jewelry retailers a sterling silver water pump necklace. The necklace symbolizes the work done by her Jewelers for Water organization, and how proceeds from its sales benefit clean water projects in rural Africa.
Alethe Fatherley recognized the desire among others in the jewelry industry to participate with charitable social justice opportunities in Africa, and her reputation in the industry allowed her to step into the role as a facilitator to enact positive change. She worked with noted designer Thomas Kurilla to create a sterling silver water pump necklace, and partnered with jewelry manufacturer Hoover & Strong to produce the necklace from recycled silver. Alethe has leveraged her experience and connections to bring her vision for social good to reality, bridging the needs of both the jewelry industry and African communities. When U.S. jewelry retailers sell Jewelers for Water's necklace, 50% or more of the net proceeds from the water pump necklace go directly to funding a water well project in a rural African village.
During her career in the jewelry industry (notably Tiffany & Co., NY Fashion Institute of Technology, David Yurman, and H. Stern) Alethe Fatherley was employed at the diamond-cutting company Lazare Kaplan International. There she became interested in the firm’s diamond-cutting facilities in Namibia and developed a keen interest in the people of rural Africa and their daily challenges.
An eye-opening, three-week trip to Tanzania in 2006 changed her life as well as her outlook. The children she met yearned for an education but faced often insurmountable obstacles in pursuit of that education. A foremost obstacle was the lack of accessible water wells. While volunteering with the group Cross-Cultural Solutions, Alethe joined local women in walking five miles to obtain water from wells only to discover that the water was dirty, or was otherwise inaccessible.
She volunteered as a kindergarten teacher for a few weeks before returning home to her life on the East Coast. Alethe was so affected by her Tanzanian experience that she immediately took action to raise money for the children she met. With the money collected from a garage sale and networking with her friends, she was able to build two bathrooms for the Tanzanian kindergarteners.
Her next step was to found the non-profit organization Jewelers That Care in 2007 (now Jewelers for Water) with the goal of building both water wells and boarding schools, through donations and jewelry industry partnerships, and raising awareness with an annual awards event in Las Vegas.
Jewelers for Water’s first well was built in Tanzania’s Mwanga District, near Mount Kilimanjaro.
Alethe Fatherley explains her motivation: “As for me, I’m a very simple person. I do not like fluff. I gravitate towards substance, truth, and smarts. I grew up poor without knowing it much. My father was a farmer and a mechanic and my mom a school teacher in Jamaica. I am always drawn to the earth. I gravitate towards earthy ideals, philosophies and people who have faith and believe that we are on this Earth for a purpose. I know what poverty and hunger and sadness looks like, because I saw it in the faces of the children and the adults we met [in Tanzania]. I know what AIDS looks like, because I saw people dying of it when our volunteer group went to a small village near Arusha and the AIDS victims were just in a home waiting to die — the misery, and the pain was so shocking to some volunteers that I recall some crying, because they had never seen such a thing. This trip to Tanzania was very moving — more moving to me than witnessing the poverty in my native land, Jamaica. It hardened me. Then I had to take practical steps to figure it out. While I regard myself as a Silent Doer, I have begun to realize that that alone will not help the cause nor the people get clean water. So I’m learning to be more vocal, and strategic about how I expect to fund this charity.”
Why water and schools? “When we examine the serious issues facing Africa and rural villages around the globe,” Alethe says, “we find ourselves making a full circle back to the issues of a lack of clean water and education.” Alethe drew upon her professional experience to develop a unique approach to improve the lives of the people she met in Tanzania. “I wanted to help within my capacity. But the stories of poverty are difficult to tell—and difficult to sell. I had to come up with creative ways to get people interested.”
This was the inspiration for Jewelers for Water’s sterling silver water pump pendant. “I have a lot of relationships within the [jewelry] industry. Because I’ve been in the industry for 20 years plus, I have a lot of friends in the industry and I do a lot of collaboration with designers and manufacturers. For example, Hoover and Strong who made this pendant.” The water well pendant allows jewelry retailers to play a role in helping rural Africans, upon whom the jewelry industry relies.
Alethe wants to promote involvement by members of the jewelry industry. “The reason why we’ve chosen not to sell this pendant online is because of the relationship factor that we like to have with retailers.” To get the message out to retailers she relies upon “personal connections, our website, phone calls; sometimes other friends in the industry share the information.”
Through a combination of her enthusiasm, relationships, and compassion, Alethe Fatherley has created a social justice connection between those who previously had only an economic connection. A minimum of 50% of the net proceeds from the water pump necklace goes directly to funding a water well project in a rural African village. Retailers may choose to donate some or all of their profits so that 100% of the proceeds from each sale can be used to fund clean water projects for rural villages.
Ms. Fatherley partnered with designer Thomas Kurilla and manufacturer Hoover & Strong to create a sterling silver water pump necklace (MSRP $180), available at a wholesale price to retail jewelers. It is made in the United States from recycled metal, promoting domestic employment and environmentally responsible sourcing. Fifty percent of the net proceeds from the sale of each vintage-style water pump pendant goes directly to funding water well projects in rural villages of Africa.
For the retailers who partner with Jewelers for Water, the organization offers cause-related marketing that appeals to the jewelers’ clientele, especially millennial jewelry purchasers.
Clean water is essential for cooking, drinking, bathing, and childbirth. In rural villages many fall ill or die due to contaminated water. Alethe Fatherley founded Jewelers That Care in 2007, which she changed to Jewelers for Water so others could better understand the organization’s purpose. In 2012 Jewelers for Water finished its first well in Tanzania’s Mwanga District, near Mount Kilimanjaro.
Ms. Fatherley continues to work to provide access to clean water by building “water well epicenters.” This eliminates the need for women to walk such far distances to retrieve water for their families. Often times, women walk up to three miles to fetch water that is already infested with mosquitoes and contaminated from chemicals in the soil. "Water well epicenters" solve many health issues associated with contaminated water.
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Alethe Fatherley, Alethe Fatherley, Founder and Executive Director of Jewelers for Water
