Saturday, June 04, 2005

It's 2005 GO International

When I first considered using knitters from Rwanda to create items in my crochet design line it was like a dream. I thought that I would have to figure out some way of being home all the time to create.

The ease of the process was phenomenal. I mean it was just picking up the phone (typing in the email, as it were) to Cari Clement made the entire experience open up. Ms. Clement was wonderful - open and engaging. To thinks, this is a woman who was vice president of a kintting machine company and made the choice to train others who were less fortunate so that they would have a skill that would be marketable in today's economy.

Next came discussion on the logistics of working with people so far away. Enter Liz Wald of EDImports. She has worked with these women extensively and was easy to talk to. She shared all the details, as they came up, and indulged every question.

Within no time, samples came from overseas and in six months I had the products in my hot little hands - PERFECT and in the colors I selected.

Internationally there are crafts cooperatives located in every region. From Nepal to Rio, there are micro-economic development funds created for women and men working towards uplifting their communities with the skills that they have. Bringing these valued skills to the marketplace is an effort that is created country by country, community by community.