We are lucky enough to not only be featured on Tinitrader, the one stop shop for all things trending for baby and kids, but to be included in an article about Mum's creating entrepreneurial fair trade businesses that give back. We feel so privileged to be included and thought to be making a difference!
Each us of us can make a difference. Whether it is purchasing from ethical brands or starting to compost, we can all positively impact our planet through small changes in our daily lives. It is important that we preserve our beautiful earth for our children, and our children’s children.
We hope these stories and words of wisdom inspire you to adopt more sustainable practices in your day-to-day life.
In 2016, we were lucky enough to embark on a family adventure to Ghana in West Africa. We all absolutely loved it, it was a great opportunity for our children to meet distant relatives and explore their heritage. Ghana is such a beautiful, peaceful nation, rich in culture. We didn’t want to leave! We really wanted to take a part of Ghana home with us and inspire others to explore this wonderful part of the world and so the idea for Adinkra Designs was born.
“Adinkra” are a set of symbols used in Ghanaian culture to embody traditional wisdoms and are an important part of Ghanaian heritage. We chose the “Sankofa” symbol in particular to represent our logo for it’s wisdom “we should reach back and gather the best of what our past has to teach us so that we can achieve our full potential as we move forward”. We thought it was an ideal fit for our business as it reflects our reason for establishing Adinkra Designs in the first place, to support artisans in continuing the traditional skill of weaving and to provide opportunities out of poverty for the artisan and their family, opportunity to move forward.
My husband and I are the Australian side of the business, running the sales and marketing, designing product, managing the warehouse, packing orders and we have family based in Ghana that work alongside our team of basket weavers and make the intrinsic logistics arrangements for us. It’s well and truly a global family effort!
We believe in a combined philosophy of trade and aid. We work direct with artisans to ensure fair trade practices are followed and we also feel strongly that children are our future and should also be our focus, so for this reason we contribute part of our profits towards education and resources for children in great need and developed The Adinkra Project, our foundation focused on establishing Youth Centres and education initiatives for children in Ghana.
Education plays a vital role in empowering children to know their value and to gain income-generating skills. Sadly, so many children are unable to attend school, as their family simply can’t afford it or they are required to leave school and start work at a young age to help support their family. The Adinkra Project, in partnership with AYI (Africa Youth Initiative) are growing a network of Youth Centres that focus on giving children a recreational space where they receive tutoring, access to computers, library and sports equipment. The Youth Centres provide a supportive environment for local children to gather, learn and play. A key part of the program is to support the children through individual casework, mentoring and counselling. The Youth Centres function to provide a consistent and stable program to supplement their schooling that aims to build their life skills and confidence to break the cycle of poverty.
There is an old African proverb – if you think you are too small to make a difference, you have never spent the night with a mosquito! And we definitely believe this – all help is greatly appreciated, no contribution is too small. And there are lots of ways to help, whether it be a monetary donation or contributing educational resources such as books, pencils, sports equipment, games, lego – anything that kids love, it all goes direct to the youth centre. Make sure to follow along on instagram to see how much the children are enjoying their time in the youth centres. Please get in touch with Adinkra Designs if you can help.
See the full article here at Tinitrader.
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Explore what truly defines a Bolga Basket. Each Bolga basket is a piece of individual expression. The designs, colours, shape and technique is unique to the weaver who handcrafted it. Each basket is an interpretation of life in Ghana, West Africa. Mothers are weaving while cooking, feeding, nursing, cleaning, schooling their children. Fathers are weaving while growing crops and brothers and sisters are watching, learning and developing their own take on the craft. It’s a balance of life and artistic feeling.