We are Urjana Shrestha and Srijana Shrestha, two sisters working as a social entrepreneurs on the project Fair-Trade Crafts from Nepal. We were both actively involved in various social activities from the very young age and always believed in social entrepreneurship for the development of the society and in the poverty reduction. As the owners of the enterprise, we are both motivated and committed in creating the employment opportunities to the number of people in Nepal promoting their traditional talents in the global markets.

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Srijana Crafts is the Fairtrade social enterprise, which aims in reducing the poverty by creating job opportunities for the local people of various parts of the Nepal through the fairtrade crafts business. ‘Srijana’ meaning the ‘Innovation/New Creation’ would like to create a new trend and new opportunities of doing business in an innovative and fair way promoting the cultural and traditional talents of Nepalese Craft Making in the global markets.

The main vision of our enterprise is to ensure that the people supplying the crafts receive fair wages, their works and craftsmanship are treated with dignity and their products receive global recognition. It aims in reducing poverty of the local people by providing them with opportunities to earn by presenting their unique crafts in the global market and to create a community that is safe, healthy and environmentally sustainable and to encourage in the development of SMEs. Our mission is to:

• Pay a fair wage in the local context, not only enough to cover material and labour costs, but to improve the standard of living
• Provide equal opportunities for all people, particularly the most disadvantaged
• Promote culturally and traditionally important crafts to the market
• Enhance revival, promotion and development of dying handicraft and metal craft industries as well as other dying skills and technologies
• Engage in environmentally sustainable practices
• Build long-term trade relationships
• Provide healthy and safe working conditions
• Provide financial and technical assistance to workers whenever possible

It is a Social Enterprise because it not only delivers on the financial performance targets but also on social and/or environmental performance targets. We are passionate about achieving social and environmental aims by running a profitable business in a competitive market. We opt in finding new and more sustainable solutions for improving the lives of the local people around us through the holistic approach. We provide an opportunity to the deprived people in the local community with the prospect of good regular earnings to improve the standard of their living, which will help them to educate their children, provide them with good food and shelter. We believe in reducing the poverty through our enterprise and assisting in local community development. The project is aimed to set up a fairtrade business of the Nepalese Crafts produced by the local people, selling them in the international market. The handicrafts of Nepal still haven’t received the recognition that they deserve. The crafts produced in Nepal using the traditional method and local available materials are very unique and exclusive. The technologies used are also sustainable and environmental friendly – use of solar energy, recycling techniques applied. Craftspeople, using hand tools, create Nepalese traditional crafts in home workshops. These crafts are not getting good market as they are only sold within the country besides few exporting. Only small amount of export business is not helping large number of craftspeople to earn good living out of their traditional skills which is forcing them to look for other alternatives of living. Our enterprise aims in providing jobs for some of the country's most disadvantaged people and in turn keeps the traditional crafts of the region alive and also providing them with good value of their work which in turn will boost their lifestyles. We also aim to protect and promote the interests of artisans and revive the traditional skills and craftsmanship of Nepalese artisans by exporting the unique crafts in an international market as the result of which artisans have a life of greater dignity.

It also deals with the products produced and marketed by:

• Organizations / Industries run by disabled and handicapped people.
• Business enterprises run by woman & social welfare societies
• Volunteer organizations, orphanage centres related to women, orphans and street children and their welfare
• Business organizations run by the local tribal & ethnic societies and voluntary organizations.
• e) Self- employed individuals and traditional artisans and skilled persons and professionals from different districts and regions of the country.

Apart from the purchase and sale (marketing) of the products/merchandise the following activities (functions) are carried out in support of business and their promotion.

• Survey and research on marketing of the merchandise and market information.
• Performance of sales promotional activities (display), demonstration & exhibition of the items, sell at fair markets, shops - direct sale and establish regional, continental and international market.
• Guidance, counselling and advisory services or feeding information and providing suggestions to the producers in relation to pattern and design development, improvement and maintaining and sustaining quality and standard of the products at free of charge in order to sustain and expand the market and diversification depending upon the taste, change of needs, time and place, design, colour and style are changed depending upon change of time, place and customer.
• Organizing and conducting workshops, seminars & dissemination of knowledge on product, quality standard, competitive price etc to the producers from time to time.
• Our activities focus also on contribution for skill development, upgrading skills, transfer of technology, dissemination of knowledge and technical know-how in the area.
• Under long term planning, we are aiming that some specific percentage or portion of profit will be invested in education, health, sustaining ecology & environment and local development for the welfare and benefit of people concerned by establishing industries and providing grants and contribution, funds and establishing trusts and needful cooperation and assistance.