Amanda Judge Interview (Part Five)

Amanda Judge Interview (Part Five)

By Ariana

The final section of our interview delves into the Shopping for a Change and Faire Collection Nutritional Empowerment Project, the life-changing benefits Amanda provides her artisans and the inspirational story of Olga, a former Faire Collection artisan.

The fabulous Amanda Judge left all of us wowed with her humility, grace, and passion for her work. She has come a long way from her roots as a college student, visiting Ecuador for the sole purpose of writing a strong Master’s Theses on poverty reduction strategies in rural South America. To read about the origins of the Faire collection, visit Eleanor’s earlier post, part one. 

“I’ve read that you provide your artisans with more long term benefits such as scholarship programs, a no-interest loan system, and an emergency relief program along with a trained member to aid artisans in long-term investments in education and technology. Are some artisans hesitant with leaving older values behind or are reactions mostly optimistic?”

Coming from a traditional family myself, it came to me as a little bit of a surprise when Amanda informed me that a good portion of families aren’t reluctant to abandon old customs, such as marrying off young girls without regard to their education. Instead, most artisans are “really excited” to progress towards an improved lifestyle with a stronger chance at an optimistic future. “Fortunately, most artisan families are just really grateful!” exclaims Amanda. 

Ariana models the Playita Neckalce
by the Faire Collection.

From some previous research, I had discovered that the Faire Collection heavily involves artisans from the Kichwa tribe. A little confused, I asked Amanda to help define what the term “Kichwa” really refers to: the culture, the people, the language, or the location? The “Kichwa” is actually more of an umbrella term, it’s a culture that encompasses a variety of groups. Amanda expands, “The Kichwa people that we work with in the Amazon are very different culturally than the Kichwa people we work with in the Andes Mountains, and they’re both called Kichwa. So the location of the tribe really defines the culture...and the language is different.” Out of curiosity, I asked her how she stumbled upon this main group. With her strong connections, a friend was able to inform Amanda about the Kichwa. And she was very glad about it, too, “Our companies to work together on very different aspects to bring holistic improvements to the community.”  Luckily for us, Shopping for a Change and the Faire Collection are working together in the Nutritional Empowerment Project which will commence at the beginning of 2013, and it’s great that the Kichwa are “becoming excited” as they continue learn more about it.

Since Amanda has had so much experience with her artisans, I knew I had to ask about a special success story she’s come across. She smiles as she reminisces, “The story of Olga is really cool, her family was living off of less than one dollar a day, and then in 2010, only 2 years after they started working with us, they were making $26/a day. So they’re income increased dramatically by 200%. She got to the point where we gave her a no-interest loan to start her own store. She actually made the decision to stop working with the Andean [Faire] Collection and just run her store, because we were able to start her. And I love that story because the idea is not for us to entrap artisans in only being able to work for us, but to be able to lift them up to a different level so they can make decisions on about what’s best for them.” Sounds pretty generous to us, what do you think? Leave a comment on your thoughts below!

Hi all! I’m Ariana. Apart from being a junior in high school, I am also an intern at Shopping for a Change this summer. I’ve learned so much about the marketing world and I look forward to the rest of the summer with Stacey and the rest of the interns. I love multicultural food, playing different instruments, and pretty much anything and everything Nintendo! I hope you enjoy reading our blog posts, we’ve definitely enjoyed writing them. 

Amanda Judge Interview (Part Four)

Amanda Judge Interview (Part Four)

By Niki

Amanda Judge, founder of the Faire Collection, an organization that works to raise artisans from poverty through the creation of sustainable jewelry and accessories, reflects upon her overall experience.

Though the Faire Collection has only been operating for five years, the organization already works with artisans across four different countries: Ecuador, Peru, Swaziland, and Vietnam. Awed by the company’s passion and ambition for making a difference through fair trade, I felt excited to discover the thoughts of founder Amanda Judge on her overall experience.

In the five years that you have been in business, what have been your greatest achievements and most difficult challenges?

When Amanda first started the Faire Collection, her greatest goal was to “bring fair trade into the mainstream.” Not only has the Faire Collection successfully accomplished that goal, but Amanda also proudly claims that, “At this point, we’re the largest fair trade accessories company in the U.S.” To top it off, the Faire Collection has worked with “twenty of the largest retailers.” You would think that the Faire Collection has reached the pinnacle of its success, but Amanda and her team still strive to expand and to bring fair trade further into the mainstream by “working with larger retailers.” Wow. 

Tasha models the Tagua Bib Necklace and
the Polished Tagua Bracelet. 

Interestingly, Amanda reflected, “Most of our challenges were not related to fair trade necessarily, but just running business in general. It was a difficult thing to do, having never done it before.” I had expected a response along the lines of gaining the trust of the artisans, or operating a worldwide organization. However, looking back on SFAC’s interview sessions with Katy Leaky and Samantha Morshed, founders of the Leaky Collection and Pebble Child respectively, I realize that they too struggled with the business aspect of running a fair trade organization. Amanda explains that, specifically, she had to deal with “manufacturing on a different level.” But she “learned along the way,” and now the Faire Collection and its workers reap the benefits of her determination and whole-hearted efforts.

Is it harder to work with some countries than others?

Since the Faire Collection is one of the few fair trade organizations operating in multiple countries, I was curious to hear Amanda’s viewpoint on accomplishing this feat. “Well,” she noted, “they’ve all been different. We adapt the model depending on which country we’re in…Ecuador is most extensive, so it’s most difficult, but there’s also most familiarity with it. I just came back from Vietnam, so I have a lot to learn about their culture and lifestyle…but it’s just different.”

Overall, I came out from the interview with Amanda even more impressed than I was originally. She has no regrets, and would do everything similarly if she had the chance to do it all over again. The Faire Collection is true to their words - “With one life to live, we intend to make the most of it and inspire you to do the same.”

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 enjoyed reading the installments of the interview!

Amanda Judge Interview (Part Three)

Amanda Judge Interview (Part Three)

by Ilana

In the third installment of our interview with Amanda Judge, Ilana talks to Amanda about the design process behind the creation of the Faire Collection's products.

Recently I had the opportunity to interview with Amanda Judge, Founder & Designer of The Faire Collection (formerly known as The Andean Collection). Wanting to know more about the Artisans and the process of handcrafting goods; my questions for her mainly focused on the company as a whole and the artisans she works with.

Lucy models the Faire Collection's
Accented Tagua Necklace in Lemon. 

The Faire Collection team likes their Artisans to be in charge of purchasing their own supplies to make products. According to Amanda,  "this empowers the artisans to learn how to manage their own business and creates a sense of independence for each artist."

When it comes to design, Amanda says they do so "with a New York customer in mind."  She went on to explain "We only source a few products from other parts of the world. Using mostly local ingredients for our collections, the artisans are able to produce products faster without with hassle of importing goods." 

The process from beginning to end in designing a new piece is fairly simple. First the Faire Collection team looks for inspiration. Gathering ideas from magazines, what they see on the streets, and Ecuadorian nature, they come up with a theme. This theme gets translated into sketches, and once completed they are sent to an artisan to make the first samples. The artisan revises designs and samples based upon the input received and their own capabilities.  Thus giving birth to a new Faire Collection design. 

Hi, My name is Ilana, and I am a senior in high school. My two passions are Fashion and helping others. While interning at Shopping for a Change I have gained insight in marketing , social media, interviewing, and now blogging!

Amanda Judge Interview (Part Two)

Amanda Judge Interview (Part Two)
by Jessica

In the second part of Shopping for a Change’s interview with Amanda Judge, the founder of the Faire Collection, you will learn about the business aspect of managing and expanding the organization.

Before interviewing Amanda, I had already done some research on the Faire Collection. Exploring its products and writing blurbs on various artisan groups had given me a fairly solid sense of what the organization was all about. Founded in 2008, the Faire Collection has come a long way. The organization now works with artisans in Vietnam, Peru, Swaziland and Ecuador, for a total of 225 artisans worldwide. The obvious question to ask was: how did the Faire Collection grow and reach such success so quickly?

To satisfy my curiosity, Amanda had given me some insight on what goes into the business aspect of managing the Faire Collection. Because the organization continues to grow and make new connections, the first task is deciding who to collaborate with next. Amanda chooses the next artisan group by “looking at a collection holistically and deciding what areas we feel are lacking in what our customers wants.” Then she goes looking for “countries and artisans that can produce the products to fill the holes.” In addition, Amanda enjoys taking inspiration from countries she has travelled to. “It’s really a combination of me traveling around the world as well as what’s right for the customers.” 

A stack of the Riverbed Tagua Bracelets by the Faire Collection.

After Amanda identifies with whom she wants to collaborate, she works to bring the first product into the market. This process can take from just 6 months to as long as 2 years. “It depends on if we’re working with artisans that can produce things pretty quickly.” Amanda then needs to determine what the artisans are paid for their work and what to charge the retailers. “We determine the retail price based on what we call “price to market.” Because the markets are always so different, Amanda looks at what similar products are being sold for and compares that price to what she would prefer to sell it for. As far as how she determines what a fair wage is, “all of it is listening to the artisans and respecting their ideas and what they have to say about their income.”

It’s no wonder that the Faire Collection is such a successful organization today. Amanda has done a great job in managing the organization – and it shows. If you want to know more about what goes on behind the scenes of the Faire Collections, read the rest of our interview with Amanda Judge.

Hey guys, my name is Jessica and I'm interning at Shopping for a Change over the summer. I enjoy writing these articles because it allows me to give my own take on conversations with people with fascinating backgrounds. I hope you guys enjoy reading my blog article and learn from it as much as I did!

Amanda Judge Interview (Part One)

Amanda Judge Interview (Part One)

by Eleanor

This is the first of a 5 part interview with Amanda Judge, Founder of the Faire Collection.

This July, four other interns and I had the opportunity to interview Amanda Judge, founder of the Faire Collection via Skype. The Faire Collection (formerly known as the Andean Collection) is a fair trade line of jewelry and accessories founded in 2008. The Faire Collection’s first workshops were located in Ecuador, but they have since expanded into Peru, Swaziland, and most recently into Vietnam.

Amanda Judge wears one of the
 Faire Collection's own creations. 

The Faire Collection developed out of Amanda’s field research for her Master’s thesis on poverty reduction strategies in rural South America. Amanda’s goal was to devise a “sustainable project that an organization could do when they went into communities in Ecuador.” “Through all of that research what I realized the best project for someone to do would be to work with the women as they are providing secondary income for the households.” However instead of just writing her thesis on her discoveries, Amanda decided to “go ahead and really do the project that I was proposing in my paper.”

The Faire Collection, now established for five years, has “tremendously” changed the lives of its artisans: “In general when I first met the artisans they were very much living below the poverty rate and struggling to feed their families. At this point they are all contributing members of middle class society. They drive cars, they have TVs, [and] they have finished homes. It’s been an incredible change. Their incomes have increased about tenfold.” As these improvements continue and the women often become the primary wage earner, Amanda says the “men are really supportive of the women in their role.”

Amanda is “very involved in the artisans’ lives” and visits Ecuador, the site of the first workshop and home to the largest of the Faire Collection’s current operations, two to five times a year. Ecuador has a “staff of five on the ground that communicate daily with the artisans,” which number 108 around the country. There are “limited staff on the ground” in Peru, Swaziland, and Vietnam, but the Faire Collection is looking ahead with their continued expansion.

Hi! I’m Eleanor and I am a rising high school junior. I have two cats, I love drinking tea, and I’m obsessed with all the jewelry on Shopping for a Change (too bad I can’t afford it all). Interning with Shopping for a Change is an amazing experience filled with inspiring stories, great opportunities, and lots and lots of cheese provided by the founder Stacey. Cheers!

Samantha Morshed Interview (Part Four)

Samantha Morshed Interview (Part Four)

By Ariana

In this forth and final installment of our interview with Samantha Morshed, founder of Pebble Child and Hathay Bunano, we learn more about what drives her success. 

Last week, I had the privilege of interviewing the empowering Samantha Morshed, the founder of “Pebble Child”, who holds a list of accomplishments that many people would consider extremely difficult to achieve. Although it was only 7 AM in Kuala Lumpar, where she was located during our interview, the time by no means hampered her enthusiasm! Giving us detailed descriptions of the nitty gritty of rural and city life, Samantha proved her passion for changing the artisans’ living conditions. I felt like I was being read a fun history book. A fun history book? No way! But, Samantha definitely deserved the title; we found her enthusiasm and stories so entertaining!

"According to your website, one of the goals of your organization is to provide employment that fits in with rural life and prevents migration to the cities. What benefits do you perceive in rural vs city life?”

To my surprise, Samantha’s explanation was quite simple. “You’re talking about really difficult living conditions here. Dhaka is one of the most dense cities in the world. It’s competing with places like China and India with much better infrastructure.” While living conditions in Dhaka have been steadily improving, diseases like cholera and typhoid are still common because of the water contamination and the poor sanitation. “My own son even had [cholera]”, she emphasized. Although the city life is “good”, it isn’t necessarily “easy”. While the conditions in both prove to be unsatisfactory, Dhaka can be considered to be

Pebble's adorable Monster Rattle.

just a step above the rural areas. “The problem is, though, that in Dacca, the population is so dense that is simply does not have the infrastructure to manage the people it has anymore,” Samantha explains. She envisions an effective, though difficult, solution - “Let’s create economic opportunity in the rural areas”. If the population of Dhaka thins out into the rural areas, overall living conditions would have a higher chance of improving in Dhaka and the rural areas. With less people packed into Dhaka, the government would have more reasonable numbers to work with in executing an efficient city improvement plan. On the other hand, a growing population in the rural area would serve as a motivation to improve conditions in a growing area. 

Because she seemed to have a goal in mind, I asked Samantha to elaborate a little bit more. She added,“Pebble continues to grow, and as it does grow, it is really beginning to demonstrate the value of alternative productive methods.” “Alternative production methods”, I thought to myself. When expanding, she referred back to the 2013 Savar Building Collapse in Bangladesh that killed nearly 1,129 people due to poor factory conditions in Dhaka. As a response to the tragedy, she noted that “we assume that these [Pebble] items need to be made in large factory buildings, but you CAN separate the production process.” From this interview, I discovered that Samantha is passionate about changing the norm from working in factories into more rural areas, which she said that “Pebble is really starting to demonstrate.” To me, her goal appears to be an extremely responsible one, illustrating the extent of her passion of her artisans’ safety and well-being. 

With the main questions aside, I decided to switch gears into Samantha’s personal experiences with Pebble...until our Skype call broke up.

As soon as we reconnected,  I asked Samantha about her favorite memories. The question got everybody laughing, as Samantha quickly blurted, “brand new babies!”. She always loved when new babies were born in the artisan communities. With all that Samantha has experienced and achieved, it’s hard to imagine she could top what we had already learned about her, but “in 2009 I went to Buckingham palace to receive the Members of the Order of the British Empire Award from the Queen, that was pretty special,” she recalled. Whattt, the Queen? ...Pretty special indeed!

As the conversation came to an end, we were all stirred by her poise and knowledge. Samantha, you have served as an inspiration to us all!

Hi all! I’m Ariana. Apart from being a junior in highschool, I am also an intern at Shopping for a Change this summer. I’ve learned so much about the marketing world and I look forward to the rest of the summer with Stacey and the rest of the interns. I love multicultural food, playing different instruments, and pretty much anything and everything Nintendo! I hope you enjoy reading our blog posts, we’ve definitely enjoyed writing them.

Samantha Morshed Interview (Part Three)

Samantha Morshed Interview (Part Three)

by Eleanor

In the third installment of our interview with Samantha Morshed, founder of Pebble Child, Samantha outlines all the work that goes into her typical day and describes the system that determines pay for the artisans.

Since Samantha Morshed’s move to Bangladesh in 2002, her love of crafts and her feeling of moral imperative led to the creation of Hathay Bunano and later Pebble Child. Her organizations have grown dramatically since then--helping more than five thousand women in the sixty-four centers they created throughout Bangladesh.

While today Samantha’s typical day consists of working in her home office in Dhaka, this was not always the case: “When I started all of this ten years ago, I did everything.” Samantha would pack boxes and label and send products, in addition to managing the office. Over the years as Hathay Bunano grew, Samantha set up systems to spread the workload throughout the office as “it was necessary that we make the head office run successfully without me.” Now she is able go into the office “very infrequently” and works mainly at home, on the computer. After handling the “one hundred and fifty to two hundred emails” she receives daily, Samantha continues the development of new products.

One of Pebble's best selling products,
the Octopus Rattle.

In addition to the creative, Samantha and Pebble must also factor in the business side when creating products. Product decisions were especially impacted during when the economic downturn struck in 2009: “at the time our bestselling product was the octopus rattle and so we made a positive decision to really stick at the price point.” The octopus rattle was priced at £10 (sold on SFAC for $14) and greatly influenced Pebble’s strategy: “the business decision at the time was to focus on products that came in at less than £10 and not to focus on the larger products because of the economic situation.” Now, as economic conditions are improving Pebble has “brought back a range of larger animals.”

As Pebble continues to add products, Samantha notes that it is important for them to “keep the range balanced so there is something for everyone.” For example, the latest catalog has been split into two: products made with non-organic or organic cotton as there are many stores that carry exclusively organic cotton products.

Another important step in the process of adding new products is determining how the artisans will be paid for creating the product. Pebble pays its artisans using a piece rate system, meaning each artisan is paid based on the number of products they make. After a new product is developed, the wage is calculated by “work[ing] out how long it takes to make [the] product. [...] From

One of Pebble's larger animals,
the Green Dragon.

that we then multiply it by the hourly rate, which is about 25 percent above minimum wage in Bangladesh. And then that becomes the piece rate.”

Samantha went on to explain the difficulties that arise when setting the pay: “within the village environment, whilst we can pay more than any other handicrafts are paying, it becomes very difficult when you get to a position where women are earning more than men. You can’t necessarily pay as much as you might want to pay because you need to balance with what’s going on in that community so that it becomes a gradual process of improvements and increases.” In order to ensure this “process of improvements” the wages of the Pebble artisans have  “an annual increase of either inflation or 10 percent, whichever is the higher.” This way both the prices of Pebble’s products and the wages of the artisans are steadily rising to match the world economy.

On the growth of Hathay Bunano and Pebble over the past ten years Samantha noted that Hathay Bunano, which handles artisan training and product creation, now runs without her. “In the early days, I taught every course [to the artisans] myself,” Samantha reflected, “I used to go out three times a week and sit cross legged on the floor and teach them how to knit while they were teaching me to speak Bangla.” Over the years, Samantha’s presence in the centers became “less and less necessary.” Samantha attributes Hathay Bunano’s success to the artisans’ feeling of dominion: “One of the reasons I think our handicraft model has worked so well is because the artisans have taken ownership of their production center and their work.” Samantha is still in charge of the design and marketing, or the “Pebble side,” but has “let go and let things happen as they should happen” for the artisans.

Hi! I’m Eleanor and I am a rising high school junior. I have two cats, I love drinking tea, and I’m obsessed with all the jewelry on Shopping for a Change (too bad I can’t afford it all). Interning with Shopping for a Change is an amazing experience filled with inspiring stories, great opportunities, and lots and lots of cheese provided by the founder Stacey. Cheers!

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!