Maiwa Foundation Fundraiser

Maiwa Fundraiser for the Artisan Alliance of Jawaja

Charllotte Kwon, founder of Maiwa Handprints and the Maiwa Foundation, has been working in India for three decades with the goal of preserving craft. She has committed herself to ethical trade and craft practices. Her business mandate is to trade directly with the individual craftspeople, thereby offering the full value of the work to its creator. With great curiosity, Maiwa questions its role in contemporary business and craft practices as it works to invigorate the economy with heart. In her words “We are learning from our collective past to value a future filled with colour, compassion, and integrity“. The Maiwa Foundation was established in 1997 to support work that develops higher-level skills or to sustain existing artisans and their skills. Click here for more information.

Maiwa to Jawaja

Charllotte has worked with one group of artisans since the early nineties. The village of Jawaja is home to 2 groups of artisans, leatherworkers and carpet weavers. The skills of these 2 groups left a profound impression on Charllotte and she has worked tirelessly to present their work to a broader North American market. She has helped them navigate through predatory lenders and provided them with necessary technical, marketing, and business support so they can present themselves to a much larger community.

Maiwa to Jawaja to JST

I have had the privilege of travelling to India on 3 occasions with Charllotte and each trip took us to Jawaja. I will never forget that first visit, struggling to take in all that I saw and falling head over heels in love with the artisans and their families. When I returned the 2nd time I brought a table loom to hold a mini-workshop for the weavers and a few years later we shared more ideas. My love for Jawaja and the Maiwa Foundation is what moved me to create this fundraiser.

As the news spreads of the disastrous toll that Covid-19 is having on India – we know that Maiwa needs our support even more. I asked Charllotte Kwon to give us a brief update on the situation the artisans of Jawaja have found themselves in.

The Artisans Alliance of Jawaja has reached a crisis point. With lockdowns and restricted international travel, this group could not sell their goods through their normal channels in India nor, at the same rate, through Maiwa. The Maiwa Foundation stepped in and, with the help and huge thanks to Jane and her weavers – for the first time in our history, are providing funding for basic living expenses to an entire group of artisans. We need to do what we can to help them keep this funding in place for at least one more year while Covid-19 and recovery runs its course.

All the money raised by Jane Stafford Textiles has been and will be used to support this entire village.