Macy's Partners With Rwandan Widows

In this undated handout photo released by Macy's, Pascasie Mukabuligo, a master weaver, poses for photographer with one of the baskets that was made in Rwanda. When Macy's decided to buy 31,000 baskets from Rwandan widows, the store was swayed in part by the prospect of contributing to a developing economy and in part by the women's tale of suffering during their country's 1994 genocide. (AP Photo/Macy's, Robert Carl) (Robert Carl - AP)

Pascasie Mukabuligo, a master weaver, saw the potential for these baskets as commercial merchandise and organized their sale at local markets. Noeleen Heyzer, director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women, then worked to establish an American market for the goods.

Karen Sherman, COO of Women for Women International, calls the project "holistic" because beyond fair pay, the weavers receive benefits like health care.

Macy's has promised to buy the baskets for as long as its customers do. And the standards an international retailer sets for its partners are high.

Shalit's team says quality is not a problem _ she contends the women make the most refined baskets in the world. The traditional baskets are pagoda-shaped, with tightly fitting lids for roofs. Many are earth-toned, beige with jagged black designs snaking around them. But other egg-shaped baskets, with only tiny lids, have bright blue and pink designs.

Shalit and her colleagues are working to train more weavers and diversify their product.

Macy's has asked their team of designers to work with the women to create a spring line that will be fresh to customers but still consistent with Rwandan tradition.

These complexities can conspire to sink projects, Coleman said. "You have these one-offs. A thousand baskets here, some Mexican clothes there," she said.

Even if this partnership does not last, however, Coleman and other experts said the weavers will benefit from having honed their skills to meet the quality and scale demands of an international market.

Those skills can then be put to use to find new outlets, even perhaps local or regional ones, which Sherman said should be central to any development partnership.

"Ultimately, a local market is more sustainable," she said, and the key to a different kind of "never again" pledge, that of not letting these women slip back into their former poverty.