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Cyma Orchids Purchases 5,000 Handmade Orchid Baskets from Victims of 2010 Earthquake in Haiti ? Provides MuchNeeded Jobs for Basket Makers At the end of January 2015, Cyma Orchids completed a purchase of 5,000 baskets from craft people who were victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, helping them to become selfsufficient, feed their families, and rebuild their villages. ANAHEIM, CA, February 13, 2015 /PressReleasePing/ - Cyma Orchids, a local family owned and operated grower, wholesaler and distributor of high quality orchids and unique home décor accessories, partnered with Stepping Stone Trading Inc. of Artesia, California, in order to purchase 5,000 hand-crafted plant baskets for their fresh orchid plants that will be sold at Home Depot from victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. All of the proceeds go directly to the Haitian basket makers and enable them to become self-sufficient, feed their families and rebuild their villages.
After traveling to Haiti and seeing the devastation caused to villages by the 2010 earthquake, the lack of assistance and support offered and the resulting huge numbers of unemployed (80%), Jennifer Park, Director of Stepping Stone Trading Inc., wanted to do something to help. She saw piles of leaves all over the area and an idea came to her. What if she could organize a program that would create jobs by enabling the people in the village to make baskets that could then be sold? If they could make baskets that could be sold, she reasoned, they would be able to work and earn money and this would enable them to become selfsufficient. By partnering with Mr. Etienne Kim, Field Director at Serving Friends International, a non-government organization dedicated to providing emergency assistance to people in third-world countries who suffer hardships, Jennifer was able to implement such a program. She contacted Ken Chung at Cyma Orchids and he was immediately interested.
“When I heard about Jennifer’s idea to help the victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and saw a sample of the baskets they could make, I was immediately interested,” reports Ken Chung, owner of Cyma Orchids. “The baskets were high quality, finely made and we could purchase them for a reasonable price. We saw that we could put our orchid plants in them and sell them at Home Depot while helping people who really needed to work and earn money become self-sufficient—it was a win-win for everyone involved,” he continued.