National Association for Indian Crafts

Jaya Jaitly, founder of  Dastkari Haat Samiti, a national association for Indian crafts, has spent her career working with Indian craftsmen throughout the subcontinent, empowering the disenfranchised to develop a sustainable livelihood through crafts. In a recent interview on Yourstory.com, Jaya talks about the path that led her to the career that has, in many […]

Social Impact Stories: Jeanne Nyirangiinshuti, Songa Designs Rwanda

Showcasing the individuals who make up the artisan industry. Songa Designs My name is Jeanne Nyirangiinshuti. They used to call me Mama Kibaki. I am working at a cooperative called Buranga mean ‘Beauty’, since 2008 and I am in charge of quality control. I am 34 years old, married with 3 kids. I have finished […]

Social Impact Stories: Moyna, Basha Bangladesh

Showcasing the individuals who make up the artisan industry. Basha Moyna* has husband and son who is 3 years old. Her husband works and earns 300 Taka per day by which they purchase food. She pays the house rent, cable bill and puts some money in savings. Her husband says he is contributes a lot […]

Social Impact Stories: Durga Maharjan, Higher Ground Nepal

Showcasing the individuals who make up the artisan industry. Higher Ground Nepal My name is Durga Maharjan. I’m 35 years old single mother. My daughter is 16 years old and goes to college. Since my husband left me when my daughter was a child, we are just two in the family, mother and daughter. My […]

Social Entrepreneurs are the way forward!

As many of the artisan groups with whom we’ve networked with have been founded by social entrepreneurs, we wanted to share this great article and interview with the CEO and founder of Ashoka, Bill Drayton. Featured on the NextBillion’s blog, The Imperative of Change – An Interview with Bill Drayton, provides some great insight on […]

Fair Trade: Thoughts From the Field

Fair Trade is a movement that has gained momentum over the last several years, and its principles it has excited for decades. The World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) has defined 10 Principles of Fair Trade which include: Creating Opportunities for Economically Disadvantaged Producers;Transparency and Accountability; Fair Trading Practices; Payment of a Fair Price; Ensuring no […]

Artesan Profile: True Moringa

The Artesan Gateway recently caught up with True Morgina co-founder Emily Cunningham to learn about the organization and their venture Made Conscious. AG: Tell us about True Moringa. How did you come to be co-founder of the organization? EC: My co-founder Kwami and I began working with small farming families in Ghana in 2012- and […]

#TrueBeautyGivesBack

The Artesan Gateway recently learned of True Moringa’s #TrueBeautyGivesBack campaign and we wanted to spread the news! Today they are highlighting Zesa,  an Indian organization that provide vocational education in jewelry and fabric design and life skills training, to girls who are survivors of human trafficking. Many of these girls go on to put these […]

Artesan Profile: Child’s Cup Full, West Bank

Founded on the principle that when you invest in a woman, you invest the larger community, Child’s Cup Full (CCF) is a non-profit social enterprise that creates sustainable economic opportunities for Palestinian refugee and impoverished women artisans in the West Bank. By providing career-relevant artisanship training programs and sustainable employment to low-income women artisans who […]

Artesan profile: Darzah, West Bank – These shoes are made for showing off!

Darzah, an initiative of Child’s Cup Full, a non-profit social enterprise based in the West Bank, is a collection of tatreez embroidered products, hand-stitched by talented women artisans.  By creating sustainable economic opportunities for refugee and low-income women, Darzah is building a consortium of artisan centers to not only have a long term economic impact […]