OUR PHILOSOPHY
As part of our business ethos, Bundu seeks to support economically disadvantaged and marginalized Southern African communities through trade not aid.
The purchase of these hand crafted items creates sustainable employment opportunities and provides economic security through regular employment and patronage. The community groups we work in collaboration with, offer environments where new skills are transferred in a dignified, clean and safe working environment.
Bundu works directly with many artisan groups and organizations that are members of IFAT, FTF or AFT. Our aim is to bridge poor communities and the West. We focus on fair trade, meaning that, the one who does the work receives a fair wage or profit.
We have clear objectives to deliver a product that competes with mainstream products on design, quality and packaging to ensure customers have a choice available to them when buying. We aim to educate our customers on what Fair Trade means ethically, commercially and to the people involved. We seek to raise awareness within our marketplace of Fair Trade issues through discussion, education, promotion and awareness.
About Bundu
WHAT DOES BUNDU OFFER OUR CUSTOMERS?
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Unique, contemporary, urban, handmade products
Unique, contemporary, urban, handmade products•Conscience clear shopping
Conscience clear shopping •Upliftment of disadvantaged African communities
Upliftment of disadvantaged African communities•A belief that your purchase choice can make a difference
A belief that your purchase choice can make a difference •An assurance that materials used are environmentally responsible
An assurance that materials used are environmentally responsible
every purchase makes a real difference
OUR COMMUNITIES
The communities Bundu supports range from large scale, mostly women’s groups to micro-enterprises empowering people on a grassroots level. Most pour much of their profits back into caring and doing work amongst some of the most marginalized of the poor. Often they have started with nothing. In this, they embody the heart of fair trade principles that give a hand up, not a hand out. One common hand spun thread that runs through all our partners is that they share a desire to see the poor given a ray of hope.
When choosing who we will partner with, we look first of all to their concern for the poor. Who do they employ? How do they employ? Are their wages fair? Do some of the profits go back into community upliftment? If all of the answers value people before profits, we can begin a relationship.
One of the communities Bundu sources from has run a rural development project in the Northern Hhohho region of Swaziland. The project works with women's groups producing and marketing quality jewelry and homeware. It is an outstanding success, with some 600 women now producing a wide range of innovative products that allows these women to earn income to supplement the family budget without leaving their families. The environmental focus of the community is carried through to the raw materials used in the products they produce. Their ever-popular Swazi basket, is made from sisal, which is an invasive weed and is ideal for craft production since harvesting does not threaten the country's natural biodiversity.
Street wire art, unique to Southern Africa and largely unavailable beyond the borders, is a living testimony to the industriousness and creative spirit of people. Born in the shanty towns and dusty backroads and baptised on the streets, today this genre is a thriving and legitimate art form in its own right, with many 'wiremasters' making a living selling their creations in upmarket shops and galleries around the world. Each hand-crafted piece is special in its own way, and each one has its own story to tell. By providing people with a workplace, permanent employment, a sense of purpose and access to resources like skills training and personal development, we are helping to improve the life of many formerly destitute South Africans.
Bundu also works with a non-profit organisation that helps bring relief to the communities hardest hit by the HIV crisis. Formed against a background of economic curtailment on welfare spending and a huge increase in the number of HIV and AIDS cases, programmes were initiated to help HIV+ people in the local community cope with the emotional and financial strains brought about by HIV and AIDS. Focusing on the needs of HIV+ women and their children, services are aimed at easing the burden of HIV by enabling people living with the virus to respond positively and attain the skills to develop their own coping strategies.
Making crafts gives a sense of achievement along with providing therapeutic value and may even be continued should their health deteriorate, allowing a desperately needed source of income to continue.
The project provides skills and a regular, sustainable income but more importantly it facilitates empowerment through the clients’ ability to support themselves and their families.
These are just some of the communities and organisations Bundu is proud to be associated with. We are always looking at new groups and new products to expand our portfolio, to bring you the best southern Africa has to offer and increase the number of people who able to earn a sustainable income from from their art.
