Crafting Fairer Futures

CRAFTING FAIRER FUTURES: ESWATINI

In September 2018 we launched our third project working in partnership with Swaziland Fair Trade (SWIFT). This one year project supported 100 women who, together with a further 1,900, sell their handcrafts at the Manzini Bus Station in central Eswatini. All women produced and sold variations of the same products creating a high competition for customers who can demand lower costs for their products meaning many women took home as little as 90p per day. This left them unable to better their standard of living and puts at risk their household food security, children’s education and access to basic healthcare and social services.

This project provided 100 of these women with training in product design, customer service and costing to enable them to diversify their products and increase their sales. The women worked with a designer and visited trade shows for market research. At the end of the project the women had gained the skills and confidence to design new products, access new markets, increase their sales and better meet the needs of their families.

This project was supported by the Evan Cornish Foundation