Artisan Soap with Gift Bag – 1 Left

Since 2001, Ten Thousand Villages has partnered with Palam Rural Centre (People’s Association for Leather and Allied Manufacturing) who offers employment opportunities to people of the marginalized Harijan community in a village in Tamil Nadu region, southeastern India. With money from product sales, Palam has purchased land and homes for artisans (ownership traditionally unavailable to lower castes) and built a school for artisans’ children. Other artisan benefits include health care and retirement pensions. Ten Thousand Villages also partners with Aravali, a for-profit company supporting the work of close to 150 artisans in the Jaipur area, primarily men working in block printing workshops in and around Jaipur, as well as women in Rajasthan who produce embroidered items. Aravali has been working with many of the same workshops for 10 years or longer. Their target wages are slightly higher than the local market. The workshops are within a relatively close geographical range, which allows Aravali to maintain close contact with the artisans, despite their small administrative staff.