Why?

Why Eco-friendly?

Eco-friendly and sustainable purchases are better for your health and the health of the environment. The toxins stored up inside just about everything you buy from furniture to face creams are gradually seeping out and having an effect on you. Products including natural colourfast dyes, all-natural fibres and sustainable resources (including bamboo and wool) are pesticide free, hypo-allergenic, antibacterial and much better for your health and that of your family and friends.

Why Fair Trade?

Fair Trade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices, Fair Trade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.

Most Fair Trade products are assembled using 100% natural products that are better for your health and that of the environment. They are hand made, many from hand woven fabrics and often create a highly unique product you would rarely see two exactly the same of.

The products here are put together as part of Fair Trade companies in countries including Sri Lanka and Peru. In Sri Lanka women who have limited schooling and skill to have a better life through a real wage, enabling them to support their families with self-respect and dignity.  The creative designers are encouraged to be innovative and stretch their creative intelligence. In Peru, it provides employment and income for hundreds of women and their families living in some of the poorest areas of Peru, South America.  Women receive training and direct payment for their work at groups run by the Sisters of St Joseph around Peru.  The income helps pay for basic necessities such as food, medicine and education.  The project gives women the chance to develop their skills and abilities, which in turn improves their confidence and opens doors to other opportunities and empowerment.

Quotes

1 – ‘Most bold change is the result of a hundred thousand tiny changes that culminate in a bold product or procedure or structure.’ ~ Thomas Peters
2 – ‘If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you’ve never been in bed with a mosquito.’ ~ Anita Roddick, Business as Usual, Thorsons, USA, 2001.
3 – ‘The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.’ ~ William James