She's Crafty: World of Good brings female artisans' wares to global markets
Stanford Social Innovation Review
May 30, 2008
By Leslie Berger
From 1933 to 1947, Dr. Jayanti Mitrasen Mahimtura was among the legions of Indians who joined in her country's struggle for independence from Great Britain. She took time off from medical school, did jail time twice for acts of civil disobedience, and wore only khadi, the hand-spun cloth that Mahatma Gandhi used as a symbol of India's self-sufficiency.
Today, Mahimtura's granddaughter, Priya Haji, is a rising star in the fair trade movement. Haji's company, World of Good, connects artisans—mostly women—in poor countries with trendy consumers in the West. The company first ferrets out handmade items from far-flung villages across Asia, Africa, and South America. It then cleverly displays the wares in affluent urban stores throughout the United States. Though Haji, the CEO, declines to release sales figures, she says gross revenues have doubled every year since 2004,when she started the company with two classmates from the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
Boutiques selling ethnic crafts like earrings, scarves, and bowls are ubiquitous in gentrifying neighborhoods. But Haitians bigger: Her company works with 150 organizations in34 countries to source enough wares to stock mainstream retailers such as Whole Foods, Wegmans, campus book-stores, and, in a new venture, eBay. By the end of this year, she says, her company will employ 15,000 women around the world.
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