Help Afghan Women Artisans participate in the International Trade Fair in New York City
Halima, 22, has been operating a tailoring workshop since two years employing 10 women
Zardozi has launched an online crowdfunding campaign to help us send two of our extremely talented and hand-working women artisan to participate in an international trade exhibition in New York City.
The New York International Trade Fair, scheduled to be held twice in the next one year—in August 2016 and January/February 2017, and is an excellent platform for Zardozi local artisans. It is an opportunity for them to represent their art.
But most importantly, Zardozi needs to increase exports in order to give a stable income to the artisans.
In the last couple of years, security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated forcing Zardozi to close its shop in Kabul. Products made by Afghan and Pakistani women artisans were sold through this shop and an income was generated to help these women. This income was a major source of paying utility and medical bills and school fee for their children.
Added to this, is the high costs of Zardozi products. We ensures that women artisans earn fair wages. Zardozi product pricing includes wages, raw material costs, salaries paid to the mobile staff and administration costs of the mobile teams visiting the women at their homes. This makes the Zardozi product expensive to sell in the local markets. It is important for Zardozi marketing team to keep bringing in orders throughout the year as Zardozi mostly runs through the sales of its products. However, even the sales income is not enough to cover market research costs.
Attending international gift fairs has become a very important tool to connect to new customers and understand the international market trends.
Here’s what you will be supporting:
We need to gather an amount $12,230. The break up is as below,
- Product Development and Training for 100 female artisans – $1,000
- Marketing Material – $200
- Boarding, travelling and lodging for 2 – $5790
- Booth fee – Upto $5,240 per exhibition
Why should you contribute
By buying contributing to our campaign, you will be supporting the whole project to survive with dignity.
It will give the Zardozi women a chance at understanding the dynamics of the international markets, as well as build important business networks that could be key to helping Zardozi grow.
Additionally, we will reward every contributor with a token of our appreciation. Donation of $20, $50, $100, $200, $600 and $5,000, will entitle you to Zardozi gift hand-made by our talented women artisans.
To support us, please visit our crowdfunding campaign page to donate.
We greatly appreciate your contributions.