Handmade Expressions has worked in India since 2005 to create fairly traded, environmentally-friendly products. They partner with artisan groups mostly in the rural areas of India, and work to preserve traditional art forms in the communities they support. Their artisans are proud and skilled, and Handmade Expressions works hard to provide them with a much improved livelihood and a route to market here in the West.
The artisans they support have many different stories, and come from many different parts of the country. One of their artisan groups supports a school for physically and developmentally disabled children, allowing many who would otherwise be neglected to pursue an education. Another group works with girls who have escaped child marriages. These girls are shunned by their families and communities after violating the oppressive social norms to which they were expected to conform. When they leave their marriages, they are left with no where to go and no one to help. Making jewelry gives them a chance to stand on their own two feet and determine the course of their own lives.
Solar Light Project
Trade as One was able to partner with Handmade Expressions in a solar light project, which was implemented in March 2011. This project was a way to give back to Handmade Expressions’ artisans in the desert regions of Rajasthan, India: providing 100 households with generated light (solar lanterns), something we take for granted, makes a huge positive lifestyle change. Generated light provides these artisans with the ability to work after nightfall in order to earn more money, while giving their children the light necessary to complete their homework and further their education. Further, since the lanterns are solar, the artisans no longer have to expend the costs to receive kerosene lanterns from cities, or suffer the side effects of smoky fumes.
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