Artisans
Global Village Gifts has great products for any occasion and every time of year. However, that's not the reason that we're in business. Fair trade gifts provide an improved quality of life for countless artisans around the world. Here you can find some of the stories of the artisans that craft the gifts that you can buy at Global Village Gifts. Your purchase really is a gift that gives twice.
Delta Survie
In 1986 Doctors of the World, an NGO, set up a hospital in Mopti, Mali to repair obstetric fistulas of women from the surrounding rural areas. Obstetric fistulas are the result of prolonged labor, lack of pre-natal care, a scarcity of qualified midwives, and pre-adolescent girls giving birth. Many, if not most, rural Malian women give birth at home since 85% live at least 30 km from the nearest hospital. Although the problem is almost unheard of in the U.S., it is estimated that in developing countries 50,000 to 100,000 women a year suffer from the indignities of this condition. After a very difficult labor and the resulting damage to internal organs, many women are abandoned by their families and become outcasts in their communities. Every year at the hospital in Mopti, over 200 women receive operations to repair their obstetric fistulas. After the procedure, most of the women, instead of returning home, decide to stay near the hospital for up to a year, receiving counseling, education and often a second or third surgery. During this time Delta Survie, SERRV’s newest partner, trains the women to produce handcrafts, generating income for them while they recover and developing skills which can be used in the future to help support their families.
Association For Craft Producers
Over 25 years ago, the founders of the Association for Craft Producers (ACP) had a vision of a non-profit organization which could do business as well as work for the development of low-income women artisans in Nepal. Drawing from long experience of working with women and development, they realized that the promotion of handicraft production needed to be backed by an integrated support program, including assuring the supply of raw material, design ideas, management skills and organized market outlets.
ACP has grown steadily over the years and today provides services to 1,200 artisans from 15 districts of Nepal (90% of them are women). ACP’s support allows women to work from their homes, and also provides income to around 100 artisans who work in their center in Kathmandu. Women’s earnings from the sales of their crafts are an important part of their home economy and have changed the lives of many women, who now receive greater support and respect from their husbands and fathers.
ACP is committed to its social welfare programs, which provide strong benefits to the artisans, such as a savings program, school scholarships focusing on girls’ education, retirement fund, medical allowance, paid maternity and paternity leave, and other work incentives.
Reading Glasses Help Artisans
Quality craft work often requires careful attention to small details. We noticed that many of the artisans we work with were having difficulty seeing those small details and have little access to glasses. Our reading glasses donation project was born! In January 2008 we began collecting donations of new or gently used reading glasses (the kind available without a prescription) and distributing the glasses on our visits to work with our artisan partners. The project has been a great success-proof of how a little effort can make a big difference in someone's life.
Global Village Gifts has been a part of this effort.
Glasses have been donated to artisan organizations in the following countries: Madagascar, China, Thailand, Philippines, Bangladesh, and Vietnam.
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