By SF Yoga Mag

A Wanderkarma Pop Up Shop is coming to YogaWorks in San Francisco, 1823 Divisidero, this weekend (3/31 Friday 8am - 8pm, 4/1 Saturday 7:45am - 8pm & 4/2 Sunday 8:30am - 8pm). Wanderkarma is excited to be bringing yoga bags, jewelry, and hand bags from Rwanda to sell in San Francisco.

The Wanderkarma mission: Wander. Discover. Understand. Wanderkarma connects the world to global artisan's creations, the stories behind the work, and inspire meaningful travel while empowering women artisans with sustainable income through providing a global marketplace for their work. Every product that Wanderkarma carries is of premium quality and is created by skilled artisans from around the world. Each product has some story of travel to new lands, new cultures, and artisan traditions. The sale of Wanderkarma products support women artisans with a sustainable income positively impacting their children and community. The woman behind this brand is Jessica Ellerbrock.

Why Jessica started Wanderkarma:

Jessica was a corporate retail buyer for many years marketing mass produced product in the U.S. After some burnout in her career, she began traveling overseas and wanderlust kicked in. She loved how travel allowed her to be present in the moment and connected her with people around the world, and then the term Wanderkarma was born out of the amazing karma she had wandering the world. She began to discover one-of-a-kind artisanal products that told the history and tradition in the country. She knew there was a possibility for these artisans in developing countries to be entrepreneurs and bring a positive impact to their families and communities, but they needed a marketplace. With her love for their art and travel, she began to tell their stories, bringing the product back to the US, and selling them on www.wanderkarma.com. Jessica's vision is to also have Wanderkarma be something that inspires people to travel and find their own Wanderkarma spots and discover new artisans on their own. As part of the Wanderkarma circle, they give back a portion of the proceeds to women causes close to their heart. A few organizations they support are METAVIVOR (supporting women with metastatic stage 4 breast cancer), Unicef (supporting the Wayuu tribes in Colombia), and Kiva (supporting entrepreneurs in developing countries with loans).

Why Jessica chose Rwanda for this Pop Up Shop:

Jessica lived in Rwanda for 4 months supporting Kiva with microfinance partners. In her final weeks, she discovered artisan co-ops making beautiful product while they uplifted women out of difficult situations. One find was the colorful Kitenge Yoga bags that were created by the Tubahumurize Association where she met Jeanne the founder, and heard her story of a dear friend who was a victim to domestic violence, and why she started her organization. Tubahumurize Association supports and empowers female victims of violence and marginalization in Rwanda through trauma counseling, life skills coaching, sewing school, and income generation. She was so inspired and wanted to help in some way, so reached out to Yoga Works about a Pop Up shop, and the bags were made to bring back to the U.S for this weekend's event.

At this weekends event, there will also be jewelry and handbags from the Umucyo Sewing Co-op and the Duhope Sewing co-op. Both of these co-ops provide sustainable income for women along with services like counseling, English lessons, and a library for the community.

A portion of the proceeds from this weekends event at YogaWorks will be going to Kiva.org.

To learn more about Wanderkarma visit www.wanderkarma.com.

Yoga Works: 1823 Divisadero Street, San Francisco, CA 94115 | 415.292.5600