Mother's day gift ideas from African Mother's

Mothering Sunday is almost upon us.  I would like to suggest some ethical gifts handmade by African mothers that your mother might appreciate. The thinking behind this is to enable African mothers to help themselves out of  poverty.

handmade basket from Madagascar

But please don’t take my word for it, if you can spare a few moments please take a look at this

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00j1z5w/The_One_Show_10_03_2009/

As the presenter say, a loan of £18 is not an awful lot of money to us in the West, in fact for some folk would not think twice on spending it on a bottle of wine.

The idea behind Ethnic Supplies is to ensure that African mothers such as the one featured in the show have access to a wider market for their goods than the odd passing tourist. when this happens jobs are created which in turn enables others to access education and health care for chidlren, it ends the cycle of dependancy.

Bianca

Bianca is a Mum from Weybridge and is modelling some of our clothing and fashion accessories from East Africa

Our best selling ethical fashion accessories  is the Hand made basket from Madagascar, this abg is so versatile that it can be sued for all sort of purpose, for more details please follow this link

http://www.ethnicsupplies.co.uk/shop/detail.asp?Product_ID=346

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Women's Rights are we there yet?

The economic, social and political rights are being discussed all over the media today

In the article for instance Helen Loveless argues that women are the key to recovery from the economic down turn

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/money/article-1160219/Women-possess-potential-create-extra-150-000-new-companies-year-hold-key-recovery.html

As a woman entrepreuner, I agree with some of the issues raised in the article such as the fear of getting into date as well as lasck of confidence. I do wonder hwoever if these issues are unique to women and would be interested in views on this from both men and women.

The best news I have read today is in the Independent on Sunday

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/news/cheap-cheerful-and-ethical-primark-says-it-can-be-done-1639764.html

You will recall that I wrote about Primark and their unethical practices

http://ethnicsupplies.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/%E2%80%9Cethical%E2%80%9D-primark-sources-clothing-from-sweat-shops/

I am very encouraged that they have taken steps to right a bad situation. The issue about cheap fashion is that women in the developing world are not paid a fair wage for their efforts. As this is International Women’s day, why not take a stand against un ethical fashion/clothes.  You may argue that you can’t afford to financially, and I would suggest that the way around this is to buy a few decent, ethical pieces as there are likely to last and will always look good. We are all struggling financially and this is definitely not the time to  buy cheaply, as this may mean replacing your wardrobe every 6 weeks!!

Whilst the BBC Political Show spoke to 3 women and Harriet Herman on the rights and wrongs of equal pay amongst other things

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Be an Ethnic Supplies Advocate

We are looking to expand our Advocate programme as it helps us help African women help themselves out of poverty.
Advocates are people that go out and promote our work either by telling people they know about our work or by helping us to sell our products.
The advocates that help us to sell our products can be anyone looking to earn an extra income or stay at home Mums with no income at all.
We offer a handsome commission to the sales advocates as well as an opportunity for them to buy the products from Ethnic Supplies at a whole sale price.

If you would like further information about this programme or our work in general please take a look at our website www.ethnicsupplies.co.uk

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