Weavers’ collective and its own account
Two hundred women weaving puan at home, selling as one collective instead of one at a time to the trader who calls.
Why this work
The weaving is not the problem. The women here produce work that sells well in Aizawl and better outside it, and they sell it to whoever drives up with cash, at a price set by the person holding the cash. Yarn is bought the same way, in small quantities at the worst rate.
A collective changes both ends of that: yarn bought together, cloth sold together, and a bank account the group controls. None of that is new, and plenty of collectives have failed here before. What we are doing differently is paying for the bookkeeping for three full years, because the ones that failed failed at the books rather than at the loom.
What the project does
Timeline
What we will measure
Targets were set at design stage. The achieved column shows the latest verified figure, and is not adjusted when it disappoints.
Who runs it
Partners
Five self-help groups; the state handloom directorate; a design school running two workshops a year
Safeguarding & monitoring
All field staff work under the foundation's child protection and grievance policies. Data is collected against the indicators above, reviewed twice a year with the community, and published in the annual report whether or not it is flattering.
Documents
This project is running, and open to scrutiny.
We will share the full project report, expenditure statements and monitoring data with any serious enquiry, and we are content to be diligenced hard. Visits to the site can be arranged.
Talk to us about this project