We are currently working with small independent female producers producing a wide variety of handicrafts in Bangladesh. These products range from hand-embroidered greeting cards, to wooden toys, hand-embroidered cushion covers and recycled paper products.
We actively encourage our producers to use natural materials such as sea grass, rushes as well as recycled waste material from paper and jute waste, as they provide local communities with an abundant and inexpensive material with which to generate an income.
By creating opportunities for these mostly home-based craftsmen to market and sell their goods, Earth-Conscious helps to generate sustained employment and steady income for these rural women who would otherwise be unemployed.
The option of working from home also helps them to work around their family commitment which is very important in Bengali culture.
Earth-Conscious funds informal and vocational schools for the children of our female employees. Other benefits provided by Earth-Conscious include a free crèche for working mothers, a salary for our workers which is well above the normal local rate and arrangement of funds and loans to ensure a smooth production process. In the future, we plan to develop a training centre for single mothers, widows and troubled wives where they will have the opportunity to become independent by acquiring a marketable skill.
Our ultimate aim is to provide these marginalised women with the financial independence and control they need to determine their own future.
Please visit the next page to read about how Earth-Conscious is helping Feroza and Monira to take control of their future.