Caroline makes jewellery by stringing recycled glass beads into fashionable necklaces and bracelets but her home -based business has a bigger purpose: To help clean up the streets of her homeland in Africa.
“One thing you cannot miss when you go to the Ghana is our issue with rubbish," the 32-year-old says.
“So my business Created by Culture was born from wanting to change the problem of rubbish building up on the streets of Ghana."
She says having rubbish collected in Ghana is 'really, really expensive' costing the average person about 20 per cent of their income.
“Little bars around Ghana, particularly in smaller towns and villages accumulate bottles through serving customers.
Glass bottles are collected for recycling in Ghana. Source: Supplied Caroline Boateng
"So we actually go and collect all of their bottles. And that's kind of how we build up our stockpile.
“Even broken windscreens, we will collect them.
"And what we do is we actually melt the glass down into beads that we can then use in jewellery.
Caroline migrated from Ghana with her family in 1991, when she was just a toddler.
Although she grew up in Australia, she remains in close contact with her family and friends there.
She is proud of Ghana's traditional glass beadmaking history, that stretches back to the 17th century, and still uses wood fired kilns to melt and reshape the recycled glass.
Caroline in Ghana extracting beads from a mould. Source: Supplied Caroline Boateng
“We crush the glass and grind it into powder. Then we pop that into moulds which help keep the bead shape.
“And then we bake the moulds in our traditional kilns. As it heats up, all that glass condenses down into a bead, and then we use those beads to create the jewellery."
“So we have transformed waste, literal waste, into something brand new,” Caroline says.
As well as helping reduce the burden of waste in the capital Accra, described as one of the world’ s most polluted places, Caroline is proud to offer work to local people.
“We have four employees, including my brother who lives in Ghana. And we also employ three people who are in charge of the bead making.
“It is really important to me to invest in giving back to the community first – so we pay everybody fair wages and up front.
“Once the artisans have worked their magic, they send the beads here to me here in Sydney, and then I create the final end product.”
Caroline sells her jewellery at markets and online. It’s a lucrative sideline to her banking day job.
Caroline's jewellery is sold at markets. Source: SBS
By connecting back to her culture, she has bridged two worlds.
“There is so much history and so much heritage in those beads. So for me, it's an opportunity to share our culture and our traditions with the world.
“And I'm proud to be doing that.”
