A BASKET FOR CHANGE

One of my secondary projects is a basket (bag) making workshop in which Mamas, aunties and youth girls are taught how to sew bags and then to help them understand quality, costs and pricing. 70 bags have been made for sale and some have been sold to Peace Corps Volunteers and a free trade shop in Port Vila. The goal is expand globally and to create and maintain a path for these bags and other local crafts to be sold in the U.S. through a website. Brianna Russel, the other PCV on Paama and I have been working together to start a business plan and here’s a synopsis…

A Basket for Change, founded and run by two current Peace Corps volunteers (Amy Chan and Brianna Russel) began in the South Pacific on Vanuatu Islands. Through workshops, a group of women have been organized to sew baskets (bags) out of cotton and polyester material known for its island style prints. These women are natives to Vanuatu, located on Paama, a small island, 32 square kilometers with about 2,000 inhabitants. Thus far, the bags have been sold to other Peace Corps volunteers and to tourists in the country’s capital, Port Vila.

Our mission is to create a sustainable and profitable income generating business route for these women and many like them around the globe to utilize as a way of increasing their livelihood. Ni-Vanuatu are subsistence farmers, living off the foods they grow in their gardens and whatever meat they can find or afford such as local chickens, fish from the Pacific and canned tuna imported from China. They lead simple lives in contrast to the “western world” and our mission is not to change that or to impose our views and values but rather to give them a skill, a path to follow to help them raise money to pay all of their children’s school fees, medical costs and healthy diet intake.

The Goals of A Basket for Change

Short term goals include working closely with the women of Paama as well as expanding to other Vanuatu islands and to work with a partner organization, ACTIV (ACTIV=) that sells free trade goods in Port Vila. Within the next year, the hope is to establish a website to promote and sell these custom crafts in which 50% of the profit will go to the artists and 50% to shipping and administrative costs. (An average bag is estimated to cost $15).

Our long term goal is to share crafts from across the globe to humanitarians that are conscious consumers who care about the people of Vanuatu, of Africa, of China. These people are many steps behind the standard of living of the western world, living without sufficient drinking water and protein, struggling to stay healthy and to become educated. Our target market is Americans espoused in the promotion of peace. We hope to include global countries by 2013.

We have a plan and the enthusiasm of the people of Paama, now we just need your help to make it successful and sustainable for the betterment of our global family.

More info to come...