Ensures fair living wage for producers
Discloses the community being impacted
Focusses on women producers
Created using handcrafted methods
Made out of responsible materials
Biodegradable or environment friendly
Samoolam, meaning 'collective roots' in Sanskrit, was founded as a grassroots social movement in Gaya, Bihar (India) with the vision to use design as a powerful tool for social change. Samoolam promotes the dying art of 'Crochet'. It has helped rural women from over 110 families who had little or no knowledge of the craft, earn their pride and livelihood through the creation of Craftmark-certified authentic handmade fashion.
Purpose
As social entrepreneurship, it wishes to enhance the way women become changemakers while earning money and becoming self-reliant using their long-forgotten or newly-learned skill set. It uses simple, handmade product design and a ‘give back to their roots’ philosophy to actualize its purpose. The business model and brand system also encourage social and emotional collectivity, connections, and communication that most of these women miss when they are working from home. Samoolam gives them that sense of power and control over their lives without losing their feminine identity.
People
Samoolam empowers semi-urban women from lower-income brackets in Gaya, Bihar (India). Most of the women in the organization are the sole breadwinners in their families or are wives of daily wage laborers leading to extreme income fluctuation in the household. After learning crochet and earning by creating at Samoolam, artisans have a skill that they can use themselves and teach others. They are now financially supporting their families, contributing to the larger income pool, and meeting their personal needs. The combination of a new skill set with the confidence of earning for their hard work has helped our artisans to become our business leaders, managers, trainers, and role models in their society.
Planet
All the products are intricately handmade with love and care by rural women artisans in a self-sustainable and reliable model. They emphasize using every bit of procured yarn, which makes their practice almost zero-waste, ethical, and transparent. From responsible manufacturing to sustainable packaging, they design products that take the local craft to a global stage through fair wages and responsible sourcing.
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