Samantha Morshed Interview (Part Two)

Samantha Morshed Interview(Part Two)
by Jessica

This is the second part of Shopping for a Change’s interview with the lovely Samantha Morshed, founder of Pebble Child.

Seeing two octopus toys give each other high-fives on the cover page of the Pebble Child website was already too cute to handle. After scrolling through pictures of various food-shaped rattles and animal-themed toys, I was almost ready to buy all of them for myself. When I finally had the chance to talk to Samantha, it was no surprise that I found her to be a funny and an all-around kind person. Her passion for helping out the women of Bangladesh was evident and her charming British accent was enough to win us over completely. During the interview, we learned a lot about Samantha’s past and her inspiration to start Pebble Child. In 1992, Samantha was first introduced to Bangladesh by her future husband Morshed, who wanted to show her where he had grown up. It was in her return trip of 2002 that Samantha started up Pebble Child to help out the women living there and improve their lifestyles. Though Samantha was faced with a daunting task, she was lucky to have her entire family supporting her. “My husband helps me – we work together as partners.” When she first started setting up centers, Samantha did not have the language skill to communicate with people, so Morshed stepped in to assist her. In addition, Samantha’s children (2 boys, 11 and 13 years old) are also involved in the process - I was surprised to discover that oldest son had even independently designed some of the products, including the Chubby monster toy.

Pebble's precious duo of boy and girl bunnies.

In the interview, Samantha filled me in on the significant changes Pebble Child has made in the artisan’s lifestyles. Normally, people in Bangladesh do not have many options when it comes to employment opportunities. Working in the season field, which is work usually done by the men anyways, is the only other job open to the women in Bangladesh. Samantha described some areas as “so poor that the women don’t even have a sari blouse -it's undignified for women not to have a sari blouse because it's like not having underwear.” Working for Pebble Child not only gave the women an opportunity to earn their own income, but also gave them the liberty to invest the money however they pleased. Many of the development aid programs had dictated how the women spent their money, stripping them of their freedom of choice. To Samantha, it is important that “when we start to help people, we are not disempowering them by making decisions for them - something that is overlooked in many large development aid programs that go on…” 

Fortunately, Pebble Child operates on better standards. “We don’t assume ourselves to be the experts in what the women need. These women have lived lives that have required enormous resilience and they’ve learned a great deal from that. While they might be illiterate, they are certainly not stupid and they know what’s required and what’s best for their family.” When given the ability to spend, women knew what they wanted.  Samantha notices huge changes in their lifestyles. First, the women started to buy additional protein for the family. They made improvements to their living conditions. A concrete floor took the place of the mud floor, making their houses more stable and resilient to floods and the harsh weather in Bangladesh. In addition, the women replaced the matted roof with a tin one and bought televisions for their houses. Then, the women started to make bigger changes in their lives. “Over time women make the decision not to give birth at home but rather go to the clinic to give birth” While schooling in Bangladesh is free, families need to ensure their children have uniforms and second hand books, so “we start to see that the women are able to afford these items and send their children to school.”

I had questioned Samantha about what inspired her to start the organization. She had graduated in physics from Oxford University, worked at BBC as a researcher, earned a postgrad diploma in financial economics, and spent eight years working in investment banking. It struck me as odd that she didn’t have a background that really connected her with her work in Bangladesh. Seeing my confusion, Samantha answered with:

"You haven’t been to Bangladesh. It's impossible to go to Bangladesh as an educated person feeling that you have some skills, and not get involved... to be honest with you. The need is all around you even if you live in the smartest area, in the capital city you step out of your house and there are beggars, there are people with real needs, there are people living in the streets....it's impossible just to turn your head away and not to try and do something... you can’t sleep at night feeling like you're not do something when in actual fact you do have some skills that maybe would enable you to do something… it’s compulsory, really. There is no choice in it--you just get on with it.”

Hey guys, my name is Jessica. I'm 16 and an upcoming senior at high school. I really loved talking to Samantha Morshed, and this Pebble Child blog was probably my favorite one to write...so I hope you guys enjoy this article as much as I did!

Samantha Morshed Interview (Part One)

Samantha Morshed Interview (Part One)

By Niki

Samantha Morshed, founder of Pebble Child, an organization that works to create local employment for rural women in Bangladesh, speaks about her inspiration and the business model she chose to create. (And some fun facts: Why the name Pebble? And what’s the Broken Needle Register?)

My pre-interview preparation for speaking to Samantha Morshed, founder of Pebble toys and the nonprofit Hathay Bunano, was mostly limited to staring and longing at pictures of Pebble’s food rattles – oh, how I still crave cupcakes every time I think of them! However, aside from learning that Pebble sells adorable and creatively designed hand-knitted toys, I also learned that the organization works for an admirable purpose: creating local employment opportunities for rural women in Bangladesh.

Then the day of the interview came along, and, waiting for five o’clock, I created a mental image of Samantha in my mind – I pictured a native Bangladeshi who wanted to give back to her country. Naturally, I felt surprised when I found myself looking at the cheerful face of a Caucasian from England with her charming British accent. I wondered, What made her forsake a comfortable life in England to dedicate herself to the impoverished Bangladesh?

What inspired you to move to Bangladesh and start Hathay Bunano?

Samantha clarified that she originally went to Bangladesh in 2004 for a six-month visit, for the purpose of showing her children “the other side of their culture” (her husband is British-Bangladeshi). What came next, however, was completely unplanned. “When we started to live there,” related Samantha, “it became clear that there was so much need…we felt morally obligated to do something about it.” Drawing from her love of arts and crafts, Samantha, believing that she “had some solutions to some of the problems” in the handicraft business model, “decided to just start up a small handicraft setup” herself. Thus, the nonprofit Hathay Bunano, meaning hand-knitted, was born.

How did you go about creating Hathay Bunano, and then Pebble?

Samantha immediately introduced her first “big problem” to be the aspect of Pebble’s work that I admire most: design. Samantha explained that, “One of big problems with handicraft projects was that everything was fine as long as one of the big donor organizations was paying for a designer… As soon as the designer’s contract finished and the money ran out, you could no longer make designs that people wanted.” Instead of giving in to periodic downfalls in design, Samantha “set about taking what you could learn from the readymade garments industry…after all, Bangladesh is one of the largest suppliers of T-Shirts and things in the world.” She took what she could learn from that large-scale industry, and worked to “apply it to the handicraft industry.” And, apparently, she took in a lot.

Pebble's delicious looking cupcake rattle,
 coming soon to Shopping for a Change!

The toys originally produced through Hathay Bunano were originally private labeled for other companies, but as Samantha explained to us, she decided to create the Pebble brand, “really because…the story behind the women at Hathay Bunano was not coming out. The large companies who were taking our products were very keen to keep it a secret, to avoid competition. It was never my intention originally to create a brand. It was my intention to increase employment through the handicraft model.”

Are the women working at their homes, or are they working at set locations?

“One of the biggest problems with the traditional handicraft model and working out of homes is that you can’t guarantee basic health and safety. This goes back to the way that we started…selling to large organizations. We needed to demonstrate that we were able to maintain basic health and safety requirements. One of the most important ones is the Broken Needle Register. We can’t guarantee that if women are working in their homes. We also can’t guarantee that there’s no child labor involved. If you sell into fair trade stores, the child labor issue is smaller. There is an understanding that if children are going to school…it’s considered okay if they are working two hours a day after school. But with larger companies it doesn’t work.”

Well, I was now wondering, as I’m sure some of you are as well, what the “broken needle register” is. Though I was afraid that it might just be common knowledge, I took a leap and asked anyway…

What is the Broken Needle Register?

It turns out that the Broken Needle Register is a factory requirement “worldwide.” Though I myself found it both interesting and slightly ridiculous, in hindsight, it seems like a good safety measure. “If a needle breaks…you need to find all the pieces of that needle and stick them into a register.”

And, finally, for the sake of curiosity…

How did you come up with the name Pebble?

“There’s nothing emotional attached with it. A good name should be two syllables maximum so it can sell in any country. A ‘pebble’ is a little thing, but at the same time it’s strong and soft. It just seemed to fit.”

Hi, I’m Niki, and I’m an intern this summer at Shopping for a Change! I’m a rising junior in high school, with a passion for singing and playing the piano. So far, I’ve had a great experience working, learning about marketing, reading inspiring stories, conducting interviews, and now blog-writing. Hope you enjoy reading the installments of the interview!