Product Review : Multipurpose Basket

Durante mucho tiempo estuve buscando un cesto para ordenar mis set de maquillaje, los  cuales siempre estaban en todos lados, menos donde yo los buscaba cuando los necesitaba. Agraciadamente un buen amigo me regalo los cestos ovalados multiusos hechos de papel periodico reciclado de KALAKOSH. Al verlos era como si me hubieran leido el pensamiento, puesto que a mi parecer, estos cestos son muy practicos y sobretodo ecologicos. Gracias a los cestos multiusos no tengo que seguir buscando mi set de maquillaje, ahora todo esta en un lugar y donde yo lo necesito!!!

- Pamela Pizarro

Check more colors of the basket in kalakosh online shop

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I was looking for a basket in order to put in my make-up stuff, because they were all the time in different part of the house and I didn’t find them when I was looking for using them. One day I received the multi-purpose oval basket made from up cycled newspaper from KALAKOSH as a gift and I find them very useful.  Now all my Make-up stuff has a place and it is very practical. I don’t need to search for them any more!!! J

- Pamela Pizarro

Check more colors of the basket in kalakosh online shop

Sustainable running choices

When we started with the idea of kalakosh to create a platform for sustainable life-style products, the discussion turned into how sustainable our life-styles are?

As i had been into running for about an year (My running blog), i started looking into the stuff around running to find out how sustainable it is and what changes i can do to make it more sustainable.

I started with the most important part of running, i.e. shoes. There i found a very interesting and innovative technology developed by Brooks, called BioMogo.



The ideology of brooks to share the technology to other shoe manufacturers to make the the running more sustainable is pretty cool.

To quote Brooks President and CEO Jim Weber on brooks values

“In our quest to make best-in-class performance products for runners, we also affect people and the environment as we process materials, contract with factories, and ship products around the globe. We care about healthy bodies and minds, and our role in fostering an environment where life can thrive for the long run. We are committed to evolving into a business that is more sustainable, one that builds great running gear with minimal impact on humanity and the Earth.”         

In Brooks, i found a company which is working consciously to make the running more sustainable. They also talk their principles more openly in all the forums, as a consumer it is very helpful in buying shoes.

PS : I am looking forward to buy my next brooks, Green Silence, which uses 75% recycled materials.

Fair Trade: A Beginner's Guide by Jacqueline DeCarlo

I found this book when we started with the idea of kalakosh and trying to understand the world of fair trade. As such it is a great resource to start with if you are new to fair trade.

This book gives a comprehensive information about all topics related to fair trade. It starts with principles of fair trade and why it is important, continues on to the impact it can make on producer communities highlighted with examples or case studies related to some communities in South America. The author also narrates experiences of some individuals, who started fair trade initiatives - this makes for some very inspirational reading. Also, she touches upon how the latest technologies can take fair trade to a different level by connecting producers to consumers directly and engaging a broader audience. The book ends with the future of fair trade from the author's perspective. In this context, the author highlights the fact that the fair trade movement is mostly run by the people from the "West" (implies developed countries), who are, in one way or the other, associated with religious organisations. It is now time for a new generation of entrepreneurs coming from different cultural backgrounds to get involved in fair trade businesses.

It is this "call to action" within the book that got us thinking about our own concept, which took the form of  kalakosh

We recommend this book to anyone, who is interested in fair trade and would like to know how it works. For this book or other related reading recommendations on fair trade, please check out our book collection under Fair Trade & Sustainability.

Kalakosh decides to party!

On 3rd March, Sandeep was celebrating his birthday party and we made that an occasion to display some of our products amongst our friends. It was a great evening with great people! We received some really positive feedback on our ideas, our products, our website.

Its always good to hear people appreciate the things we've done well, but its even better to get tips and advice on how to do better. Needless to say, we know this is just the start and there is a long way to go and we have a big learning curve ahead of us. But we'll keep marching on.

Last, but not the least, a BIG THANK YOU to:
-- our hosts, Meeta and Sanket, who were very generous and gracious in their hospitality
-- to Maike, for putting together a really cool product display in literally two minutes and for giving a helping hand on quite a few other things
-- to all people for sharing some great moments with us, for the big smiles, and for buying our products, for your encouragement, and your support

Below are some memories from the evening ...some more on our Facebook page! (photo credits: Meeta & Sanket)

Signing off for now,
Paritosh

Our Journal Collection

Our Basket Display - Thank You, Maike!

Talking about the Old School Sketchbook with Yosuke

Kasturi was all smiles today!

... and so were the others! We cherish those the most! Thank you for your support!

Not to forget...the birthday boy! I believe he was the happiest of the lot!

Rural Women Empowerment: My Impressions - Part II

After spending a week with WELLpaper's women self help groups near Pondicherry, I travelled to the southern tip of India, Kanyakumari to visit the NGO CHARDEP.

CHARDEP is based in the town Nagercoil, which is about 2o km north of Kanyakumari. It is run by the very dedicated, highly motivated and down-to-earth Mr. Manikandan and his team. They have several following programs which include Annapoorna Yatra, where they provide a daily meal for the homeless in the region. Another program is the HIV/AIDS treatment center, where they have a small clinic to provide regular treatment for HIV infected people. They also have women empowerment programs, which was the my main reason for my visit to Nagercoil.

Currently there are about 1500 self-help groups (SHGs), which are supported/mentored by CHARDEP. CHARDEP makes sure that they get credit from the local bank using their resources as guarantee, they distribute the money and make sure that the money is paid back to the bank in time. All of these self-help groups are coordinated by an outstanding woman Mrs. Mary, who does not have any formal education but knows how to manages about 10,000 men and women from the villages. As a mentor and as a friend, she connects outstandingly well with the women in the SHGs.

The first SHG we visited is in a village reached driving from Kanyakumari to Nagercoil. The women there are making stripes out of palm tree leaves, which are then later used in making hats. It was an amazing sight to see about 15 women sitting under a tree on a sunny day laughing, talking and at the same working on the palm leaves. The working hours there are flexible as the women need to take care of their household chores, thereforce most of the women work about 4 to 6 hours daily. In addition to earning money for their livelihood, they are happy just being part of the group creating something good out of the locally available resources.

Women working under a tree

Stripes made out of palm tree leaves

The next SHG we visited is in another village which is about 10 km from the first village. As the entire region is full of palm trees, the second SHG is also working with palm tree leaves. They get the palm tree leaves, cut them in half and wave them to make a sheet/slab which is used as a construction material for a roof of a hut or a fencing wall. Different in this SHG is the fact that some of the women are entrepreneurs. They lease the palm trees yearly, so that they have the much needed raw material and rest of the byproducts they can sell locally.

The working hours are flexible in in this SHG as well, women work whenever they have time during the day. Some of the women I spoke to are using the income in sending their children to better schools and colleges. One of the woman was very proud that she could send her son to a technical college in nearby town.

Women explaining to us about their work (note palm leave sheets which are used as mats)

Women who was skillfully cutting the palm leave into two (I was astonished to see the precision of her work)

In both the SHGs, I was happy to see that given a chance women can make a great impact in the society and bring the much needed socio-economic transformation in rural india.

Rural Women Empowerment: My Impressions - Part I

Recently I had the opportunity to visit some women’s self-help groups (SHGs) in India. Which was of course a great experience to see the the impacts of SHGs for women in rural India. Here are some of my notes and experiences from my visit.

Wellpaper:
In our online shop Kalakosh, the beautiful baskets out of old newspapers ("The Hindu"), are handmade by the women SHG of Wellpaper. WELL is the abbreviation of "Women Empowerment through Local Livelihood". Wellpaper was initiated in 2005 as a tsunami-relief effort to provide an alternative source of livelihood to the tsunami affected families in the region as well as to promote products made of recycled materials. Currently there are about 20 women divided into three groups working with Wellpaper. Wellpaper gives the orders to the groups and they also ensure that the groups have work around the year.

The groups act highly autonomously and the women are given the freedom to plan and to divide the production themselves. This include the planning, estimation of raw materials needed, ordering of raw materials and the division of the labour to make sure the products are finished on time. Before the women deliver the products to Wellpaper they then conduct a final quality check to ensure that no defective products are present. Although almost none of the woman have any formal education, their highly impressive product life cycle and their managing of the production is nothing less than a high quality formal production unit to be very proud of!

The women in the groups are treated equally and decisions are taken in a democratic way. Each woman has a role to fulfil and they are proud of creating these unique and beautiful products with their skills! Visiting the women of Wellpaper every day for one week, I was taken in with this place full of these energetic and fun-loving women taking pride in their work.

Unfortunately, during my stay at Wellpaper the very strong Cyclone Thane devastated the entire region causing damages to most of the houses. The day after the cyclone hit the region, I was quite surprised to see that the women were back to work and they were laughing and having fun as usual, even though some of them got their houses damaged. It is very inspiring to see the resilience and the inner strength of these women.

Some visual impressions from my visit:

Aftermath of the cyclone - the damage is visible

Widespread destruction of infrastructure - many were left without electricity for days

Usha with a paper basket in the initial stages

Poorna here is working on the base of a basket

Work being done on paper jewellery

Shagila at work rolling together the newspapers in to thin reeds (seen in the background)

After a week of stay there, I am convinced that SHGs are playing a great role in improving the living conditions in the region through empowering women. Notes from next SHG follows soon...