People USA — August 21, 2017

The handwoven

welcome mats

(above) come in

two sizes

and sell for $85

and $200 at

thistlefarms.org.

Stevens plans

toaddathird

loom and is

looking for a way

to expand the

weaving space

in the camp.

Creating Jobs for

Ref ug ee Women

NASHVILLE’S BECCA STEVENS TURNS DISCARDED LIFE VESTS INTO OPPORTUNITY—AND HOPE—

FOR SYRIAN WOMEN REFUGEES IN GREECEByJOHNNY DODDandAMY ESKIND

It’s the sort of dynamic—and compassion-

ate—undertaking Stevens is famous for. In 1997

she launched Thistle Farms, a Nashville-based

nonprofit that helps victims of sex trafficking

rehabilitate their lives by giving them jobs manu-

facturing home and beauty products. Now,

through her Welcome Project, Stevens is forging

the same opportunity for the women of Ritsona.

“It’s an extraordinary woman who decides to be-

come a refugee with her children,” she says. “That

takes extraordinary, extraordinary courage.”

Profits from the sale of the mats are directed

back to the women and into the project, which has

already expanded to include nine refugee wom-

en, who are producing 50 mats a week. But “this

is about more than creating mats,” says Stevens.

“This is about taking a traumatic experience and

turning it into something healing.”•

B

ecca Stevens has never been short

on hope—or motivation. One day

in spring 2016, after watching a

grim video on the Syrian refu-

gee crisis in Greece, she decided

to do something about it. Within months the

54-year-old Episcopal priest and mother of three

sons had started mobilizing her staff and volun-

teer task force. By April of this year they’d arrived

in Ritsona, a barren refugee camp on the Greek

island of Evia, armed with two looms and a

unique idea: to teach the women there how to

weave welcome mats from discarded life jackets

worn during the treacherous sea crossing from

Syria. “The idea was that these women could

start making some money, ” says Stevens. “I was

like, ‘We should do something with those life

vests,’ they’re such a powerful symbol.”

HEROESAMONG US

The Welcome

Project

Weaving Hope

from Trauma

Stevens (left)

traveled with her

staff and volunteers

to the Ritsona

refugee camp in

Greece (below)

to teach women

fleeing Syria’s civil

war how to make

handwoven mats

from discarded

life jackets (right).

“They want

a normal life,”

says Stevens.

82 August 21, 2017 PEOPLE

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: PEGGY NAPIER; RYAN CAMP(2); COURTESY THISTLE FARMS